2017–20 ICC Women's Championship


The 2017–20 ICC Women's Championship was the second edition of the ICC Women's Championship, a Women's One Day International cricket competition that was contested by eight teams, to determine qualification for the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup. The top four teams, along with hosts New Zealand, qualified directly for the World Cup. The remaining three teams progressed to the 2020 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament.
In the previous tournament, the first three WODIs counted towards qualification. However, for this tournament, the International Cricket Council requested that additional matches are played as Women's Twenty20 Internationals. Inline with the updated ICC rules, two balls were used for the first time in WODI matches.
When originally announced in October 2017, the top three teams, along with hosts New Zealand, would qualify for the World Cup. In October 2018, the qualification structure was changed allowing the hosts plus the top four teams to qualify directly for 2021 World Cup.
The first set of fixtures were announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board, with Pakistan playing New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates in October 2017. The first round of fixtures to be played were between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, which started on 11 October 2017. In the opening fixture of the championship, the West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets.
In March 2019, England beat Sri Lanka 3–0. The result meant that Sri Lanka Women could no longer qualify directly for the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup, progressing to the 2020 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament instead. In September 2019, the ICC confirmed that Australia were the first team to qualify for the World Cup. In October 2019, Australia took an unassailable points lead to win the ICC Women's Championship trophy for the second time in a row. In February 2020, the Australian team were presented with the ICC Women's Championship trophy, ahead of their Women's Twenty20 International match against India.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the series between South Africa and Australia in March 2020. Two unscheduled series, New Zealand against Sri Lanka and Pakistan against India, were also thrown into doubt due to the pandemic. On 3 April 2020, New Zealand Cricket confirmed that their planned tour of Sri Lanka, scheduled to take place in April, had been cancelled due to the pandemic. However, the result of the series would have no impact on the final standings, as Sri Lanka had already been eliminated, and New Zealand had progressed to the World Cup as hosts. On 15 April 2020, the ICC confirmed that the points would be shared for the three series that were not played.

Results

The breakdown of results is as follows. During each round, each team played against its opponent three times.
RoundWindowHome teamAway teamDateResult
1October 2017 – February 201811 October 20173–0
1October 2017 – February 201822 October 20172–1
1October 2017 – February 201831 October 20171–2
1October 2017 – February 20185 February 20181–2
2March – June 20184 March 20183–0
2March – June 201812 March 20180–3
2March – June 201820 March 20180–3
2March – June 20189 June 20182–1
3July – October 20187 July 20182–1
3July – October 201811 September 20181–2
3July – October 201816 September 20181–1
3July – October 201818 October 20180–3
4October 2018 – February 201924 January 20191–2
4October 2018 – February 20197 February 20192–1
4October 2018 – February 201911 February 20193–0
4October 2018 – February 201922 February 20193–0
4October 2018 – February 201922 February 20192–1
5March – June 201916 March 20190–3
5March – June 20196 May 20191–1
5March – June 20196 June 20193–0
6July – November 20195 September 20190–3
6July – November 20195 October 20193–0
6July – November 20191 November 20191–2
6July – November 2019November 2019'
7December 2019 – April 20209 December 20190–2
7December 2019 – April 202025 January 20200–3
7December 2019 – April 202022 March 2020'
7December 2019 – April 2020April 2020'

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