2023 turned out to be a launchpad for women’s cricket and catapulted it into the imagination of people around the globe like nothing before. Be it the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup, the Women’s Premier League 2023 or the thrilling ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 to England defeating the mighty Aussies in an ODI and T20I series as a part of the Ashes.
England lost to Sri Lanka in a T20I series, Bangladesh defeated South Africa and India, Pakistan defeated New Zealand in a T20I series, and India’s emerging team won the U23 Emerging Asia Cup to the senior India team replicating similar heroics in the Asian Games and ending the year with iconic wins versus England and Australia at home in Test match cricket- the list is endless and fans across the world have been enamoured and drawn to the game that has so much to offer.
Here’s a quick rundown of the top ten memorable moments in women’s cricket that stood out and will remain close to our hearts.
#1 ICC U-19 T20 World Cup 2023
The year kickstarted on an auspicious note as the ICC Under 19 Women’s T20 World Cup finally began after much ado, in South Africa. The event witnessed top-class encounters and quality match-winners emerge that set the stage ablaze. India ended up winning the tournament under the able captaincy of Shafali Verma and it was a tournament of a lot of firsts and memories for the young girls.
#2 Women’s Premier League 2023
After much chatter and demand for a high-profile domestic league like the men’s IPL, the BCCI finally launched the inaugural Women’s Premier League that witnessed five teams fight it off for glory. It was a brilliantly contested tournament with some edge-of-the-seat nail-biting matches with a plethora of new and established stars etching their names in history. Mumbai Indians under the guidance of Harmanpreet Kaur and a fascinating team effort lifted their maiden trophy.
#3 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023
The highly anticipated ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 which was hosted by South Africa was special and unique in its way. Australia once again waltzed to a glorious 6th title in style edging out India by a minuscule 5-run margin. They owned the stage and reminded the world why they are the undisputed champions across all formats.
#4 Women’s Ashes 2023- Multi Format Series
The Women’s Ashes series was a toughly contested series that saw England assert their dominance. After losing the only test, they came back strongly and won the T20I series 2-1 and won the ODI series 2-1 to conclude what was a fitting victory.
#5 Sri Lanka’s dominance versus England
Sri Lanka lost out on a lot of cricket during the pandemic and the political turmoil their country has been under for a long time. However, their performances in their outings versus England were nothing less than impressive as they sealed the T20I series by a margin of 2-1. Considering they had limited matches in the preceding year and early 2023, it was quite memorable for them.
#6 India’s resurgence as Asian supergiants
On the Asian front, India’s emerging team capped off a memorable tournament by lifting the trophy and winning accolades at the ACC U23 Emerging Women’s Asia Cup. This tournament gave a good understanding of the bench strength that India possesses and a lot of the stars from the winning team eventually went on to make their debut for the senior team which was a welcome progression and a sign of better things to come. Even in the senior women’s Asian Games, India defeated Sri Lanka without breaking a sweat and concluded the tournament with a sweet win!
#7 Bangladesh’s memorable year
Not just registering one-off wins versus India in the T20 and ODI series and thoroughly challenging the Women in Blue on their home turf, Bangladesh also sealed some crucial wins in their tour of South Africa raising everyone’s eyebrows for the right reasons and truly emerged as the most improved team of 2023.
#8 Pakistan’s wins versus New Zealand
Pakistan once again stunned the cricketing world with classy performances that helped them bag a T20I series win versus the White Ferns on their home turf. Leading the series 2-0 and eventually winning the series, Pakistan emerged as a breath of fresh air and broke the hegemony of a dominant team like New Zealand.
#9 India’s consecutive Test wins versus England and Australia
Team India had a memorable December 2023 as they not only emerged as a class unit in tests with their resounding wins against England and Australia but it was how they outclassed both the units that was truly impressive with a lot of youngsters impressing.
#10 The Growth of Associate and Affiliate Nations
2023 witnessed the growth of associate and affiliate nations across the ICC events and qualifiers which was heartening to see and the selection of players in the top franchise leagues around the world. Even the Fairbreak Global proved to be a game-changing event for players from the point of view of exposure and rubbing shoulders with greats of the game.
All in all, 2023 proved to be a game-changing year for women’s cricket and with the way it is progressing, it will only seek to get better with more thrillers and fascinating match winners awaiting us!
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