BCCI announces four-team Women’s T20 Challenge; Jaipur to host the tournament during IPL 2020

With the Indian Premier League (IPL) turning into an annual high point in Indian cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is also using the opportunity to make the women’s variant gain from its tremendous popularity. Since 2018, women’s teams are also playing games coinciding with the IPL’s business end and after a one-off game in the opening year and a three-team tournament in the next, 2020 will see a seven-game tournament in the Women’s T20 Challenge featuring four teams.

On Saturday, it was confirmed that four teams will be playing in the women’s tournament at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, the home ground of Rajasthan Royals, during the playoffs of the upcoming IPL kicking off on March 29.

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, said in a statement on Saturday that the women’s event which took off in 2018 achieved major success and the intensity was equally high in the three-team tournament that was played the next year.

Women’s T20 Challenge 2020 to see seven games

“2020 aims to be no different and this edition will see a 4th team added to the tournament. The WT20 Challenge this year will feature some of the world’s best women cricketers and will have 7 matches played during the IPL Playoff week at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. Like the previous editions, this year’s Women’s T20 Challenge too promises to be an exciting prospect,” Jay Shah said in the statement.

In 2018, IPL Supernovas led by Harmanpreet Kaur defeated Smriti Mandhana’s IPL Trailblazers by three wickets to win the one-off game played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. In 2019, the Supernovas continued with their good form to win the three-side tournament that featured the Trailblazers and IPL Velocity.

All three teams ended up with similar points in the group stage but the Supernovas and Velocity made it to the final owing to a better net run-rate. Harmanpreet’s side beat Mithali Raj’s Velocity by four wickets to clinch the championship. The Trailblazers were led by Mandhana. The last year’s event was telecast on Star Sports and live streaming was on Hotstar.