WI women begin T20 World Cup campaign vs South Africa on October 5

WEST INDIES women will begin the October 3-20 International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty/20 women's World Cup in Bangladesh with a clash against last year's runners-up South Africa in Dhaka on October 5.

Winners of the 2016 T20 World Cup, the West Indies women have been placed in group B alongside the Proteas women, Bangladesh, England and Scotland, who sealed their passage to the World Cup after finishing as runners-up to Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup qualifiers which concluded in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Record six-time winners Australia begin their title defence against Sri Lanka in group A on October 4, with India, New Zealand and Pakistan rounding off the group.

After playing South Africa, Hayley Matthews and the Windies team will play Scotland and hosts Bangladesh on October 7 and 9 respectively, before ending the group phase with a meeting against England. West Indies will play all of their group games in Dhaka.

After the four-match group phase, the top two teams in either group will advance to the semifinals which will be played on October 17 and 18 respectively. The final will be played in Dhaka on October 20.

West Indies are currently sixth on the ICC's T20 rankings, and they romped to a 4-1 series victory in their last series against Pakistan which concluded last week.

Matthews, who was named as the ICC women's T20 Player of the Year for 2023, continued her sublime form in the format and she walked away with the Player of the Series award after scoring three half-centuries in five matches and amassing an aggregate of 205 runs.

The Caribbean team will play warm-up matches against India and Pakistan on September 28 and October 1 respectively before starting their World Cup campaign.