Women’s cricket has grown leaps and bounds in recent years. The 2017 ODI World Cup laid down the launchpad to popularize the game, due to increase in competitiveness and performances of players. In fact, more than 86,000 spectators witnessed the final between India and Australia in the 2020 edition of the T20 World Cup.
Although the Indian team could only reach semi-finals of 2017 and emerged as a runner-up in 2020, the cricket fans took notice of their rising stature in the women’s cricket. This development paved the way for the BCCI to organize the Women’s T20 Challenge and the Women’s IPL as well.
On that note, let’s discuss Women’s T20 Challenge in depth and a brief overview of women’s T20 IPL winners list, including Women IPL 2021 winner and Women’s IPL 2022 winner.
Table of Contents
Introduction
In 2018, the first-ever edition of Women’s T20 Challenge took place in India. It saw participation from two teams in the first-ever season, IPL Supernovas and IPL Trailblazers. This season was certainly conducted to get a rough idea about the interest from the fans, and have a rough estimate of the future of Women’s franchise league in India.
Interestingly, only a one-off game was played between Supernovas and Trailblazers. Suzie Bates (32) and Jemimah Rodrigues (25) contributed to help Trailblazers post 129 on the board. Megan Schutt and Ellyse Perry took two wickets each.
Thereafter, Mithali Raj (22) and Danielle Wyatt (24) provided a good start to the Supernovas. Then, the contributions of captain Harmanpreet Kaur (21) and Sophie Devine (19) helped the team to lift the title.
In the 2019 season, a team named Velocity was added to the roster, owing to rising interest in women’s cricket. In the first game, Trailblazers secured a victory by two runs against Supernovas. In their debut game, Velocity got the better of Trailblzers by three wickets. Then, Supernovas prevailed over Velocity by 12 runs.
Supernovas and Velocity clashed in the final game of the tournament as well. Riding on contributions from Sushma Verma (40) and Amelia Kerr (36), Velocity posted 121 on the board. Then, Harmanpreet scored a half-century, while Priya Punia and Jemimah Rodrigues hit 20+ to pave the way for Supernovas to win the game by four wickets. As such, Supernovas became women’s IPL winner 2019.
The 2018 and 2019 season saw BCCI getting praise from the idea of Women’s IPL, which pushed them to continuing with their efforts to find the right pulse of the audience.
Women’s IPL Winners List 2020
The 2020 edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge was played in the November month in UAE. A total of four matches took place in the November month. In the first game, Supernovas posted 126 on the board, with Chamari Athapaththu scoring 44 and Harmanpreet Kaur contributing 31. Ekta Bisht scalped three wickets, while Jahanara Alam and Leigh Kasperek bagged two each. Then, Sune Luus (37*) and Sushma Verma (34) contributed to lead Velocity to chase the target.
In the second game, Velocity were all-out for 47 against Trailblazers. Sophie Ecclestone was the pick of the bowlers with four scalps, while Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Jhulan Goswami picked two wickets each. Deandra Dottin top-scored with 29 to help the team record a nine-wicket victory.
The third game witnessed the Trailblazers scoring 146 against Supernovas, with Chamari Athapaththu slamming 67 off 48, with Priya Punia and Harmanpreet Kaur scoring 30+ runs each. In reply, Deepti Sharma hit 43, while Smriti Mandhana contributed 33, but the team fell short by two runs.
Both teams were up against each other in the final. Trailblazers batted first, and managed to post 118 on the board, with Mandhana returning with a knock of 68 off 49 balls. Radha Yadav finished with a five-wicket haul. However, Salma Khatun and Deepti Sharma picked three and two wickets respectively to stun the opposition and help Trailblazers lift their maiden title.
Women’s IPL Winners List 2021
This part of the IPL women’s t20 winners list is blank. The 2021 season was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, it was set to be played in November like the 2020 season in UAE, but many reasons popped up to completely fell off the radar.
Women’s IPL Winners List 2022
The Women’s T20 Challenge returned to India in 2022, and was played entirely in Pune. In the first game, Supernovas posted 162 on the board, with Kaur (37) and Dottin (35) as the principal contributors. Hayley Matthews took three wickets for Trailblazers. Then, Mandhana (34) and Rodriguez (24) were the only major scorers as the team could only score 114.
In the second game, Kaur slammed 71 and Taniya Bhatia chipped in with 35, to pave the way for Supernovas to put 150 on the board. Kate Cross picked two wickets for Velocity. In reply, Shafali Verma and Laura Wolvaardt contributed 51 each to lead Velocity to a victory.
Trailblazers posted a mammoth total of 190 against Velocity in the third game. Sabbhineni Meghana scored 77, while Rodriguez scored 66. Thereafter, Kiran Navgire was magical with a knock of 69 off 34 balls on her debut, but Velocity lost by 16 runs.
In the final, Dottin (62) and Kaur (43) did the hard yards for Supernovas to score 165 in 20 overs. Cross, Deepti and Simran Bahadur picked two wickets each for Velocity. Then, the batting unit of Velocity completely failed, as Wolvaardt hit 65 off 40 in a losing cause, which came by falling short by four runs. The Supernovas became the Women IPL 2022 winner and has the most titles (3) in the Women’s T20 IPL winner list.
Women’s IPL Winners List – All Seasons
| Year | Winner |
| 2018 | Supernovas |
| 2019 | Supernovas |
| 2020 | Trailblazers |
| 2022 | Supernovas |
| 2023 | Mumbai Indians |
The Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to organize the full-fledged Women’s IPL from 2023 onwards. Hence, the Women’s T20 Challenge was scrapped. Women’s IPL was a brain-child of the then BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah. They worked on the ideas, suggestions sent by the fans and players. With the right stakeholders, sponsors and support from other cricket boards, Women’s IPL 2023 was a much-awaited tournament across the cricket-watching nations.
The IPL 2023 auction took place, with participation from five teams, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz.
Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Meg Lanning, Beth Mooney, and Alyssa Healy led MI, RCB, DC, UPW and GG respectively. A total of 22 matches took place from March 4 to 24 in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
Capitals finished on top of the table with six wins in eight league matches, followed by MI with the same wins. UPW was the third team to qualify for the playoffs with four victories in eight appearances. However, RCB and GG failed to seal the playoffs spot with only two wins each.
In the Eliminator, MI faced UPW, which was a must-win game. MI batted first and posted 182 on the board, Nat Sciver scoring 72* off 38, while Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr and Yastika Bhatia contributed 20+ runs each. In reply, UPW was bundled out for a low score of 112, with Kiran Navgire emerging as the top-scorer with 43 off 27. Issy Wong was the pick of the bowlers with four scalps, and Saika Ishaque picking two wickets.
The final of the tournament witnessed DC facing the challenge of MI. DC posted 135 on the board, with Meg Lanning scoring 35, while Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav contributing 27* each. Wong and Matthews picked three wickets each, while Kerr bagged two. In response, MI lost two wickets early, but Brunt held the innings well with a knock of 60 off 55 balls and Kaur scoring 37 off 39 balls. Rightfully, MI emerged as the Women’s IPL 2023 winners.
Women’s IPL Winners List – Key Highlights
Supernovas, led by Harmanpreet Kaur was the most successful team in the Women’s T20 Challenge taking place from 2018 to 2022 (barring 2021 season). They clinched titles in the 2018, 2019 and 2022 season. Trailblazers won the title in the 2020 season, under the leadership of Smriti Mandhana.
After the Women’s T20 Challenge was scrapped, the Women’s IPL came into picture. Under the leadership of Kaur, Mumbai Indians lifted the 2023 title. Nat Sciver was the best batter for the team with 332 runs in 10 games. MI all-rounder Hayley Matthews bagged the most wickets (16) in the tournament.
The DC captain Meg Lanning top-scored with 345 runs in nine games at a prolific average of 49.29, followed by Nat Sciver (332) and Tahlia McGrath (302). In the bowling department, Hayley Matthews took 16 wickets to top the list, with Sophie Ecclestone and Issy Wong picking 16 and 15 wickets respectively.
Wong registered a maiden WPL hat-trick against UP Warriorz. She went on to finish with figures of 4/15 in four overs. It will certainly take a lot of effort for other bowlers to match the effort of Wong.
Tara Norris, hailing from the United States of America (USA) became the first player from an associate nation to feature in the Women’s IPL. In fact, the left-arm Delhi Capitals pacer also secured the first-ever five-for of the tournament as well. Her performance will boost other associate players to perform their best and stake their claim to find a place in the Women’s IPL teams.
FAQ
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Conclusion
Certainly, the Women’s IPL has taken a huge step forward with the team expanding from three to five in the 2023 edition. The marketing strategy to make the entry of the female free also worked in the team’s favour, as the matches were filled to their full capacity in the weekdays and weekends. The matches were competitive enough, and gave new talents to world cricket.
The tournament like these always helps the boards to find young talents, who have been under-rated or have been unable to find the right opportunities. The young talented players run shoulders with experienced T20 players, who have done it all in the international circuit. The ability to handle the pressure, when the chips are down, or how to maintain the domination in a particular fixture are key qualities the youngster can learn from the experienced players.
Although the Women’s T20 Challenge (Women’s IPL) were conducted in a low-key manner, the 2023 edition took it to another level. The pressure from the fans and leadership of the BCCI helped Indian women’s cricket to stage the biggest Women’s T20 league in the world. Almost all top active players in the world participated in the tournament. The fans and cricket watching audience gave the idea a thumbs up, and the league is all set to get their full fledged second season as well. The venues and teams might increase from the next year or two, depending upon the talent pool and players availability and scope of BCCI.
It will be interesting to witness the progress of the Women’s Indian Premier League in the years to come.
