The group stage of the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 has been concluded. A couple of the group stage games were, however, called off because of rain.
The major part of the abandoned matches took place in Colombo but games in India were also somewhat affected. Even the final group stage match in Navi Mumbai finished without a winner.
The city of Navi Mumbai will witness the first semi-final as well as the grand finale. And the rain showers may become a major factor during the knockout phase.
Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025: What Happens If It Rains in the Semi-Final or Final?
Luckily, they will. The reserve days are for both the semi-finals and the final of the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
The first semi-final, featuring England and South Africa, is set to be played on October 29 in Guwahati with an October 30 reserve day. In the meanwhile, India and Australia will clash in the second semi-final on October 30 in Navi Mumbai with the reserve day falling on October 31.
These reserve days have been built into the schedule but umpires would still attempt to complete the match on the originally designated day. Therefore, if rain does force interruptions in the knockout matches, there might be a reduction in overs in order to get a decision on the same day.
But what if the knockout matches are postponed to a reserve day?
A match for the most part is to be continued from where it was stopped on the scheduled day or it can start afresh with a complete 50-over game.
Let’s take these two cases one by one.
Match Resumes: A rainstorm disrupts the flow of a knockout game after 19 overs have been completed. Then we shall commence losing overs rendering it a game of 46 overs per side.
The play is then continued on the designated day. But rain plays spoilsport once again and no more play can take place. This indicates that the reserve day will be called into play with the game resuming as 46 overs per side.
Match Becomes Restartable: Nevertheless, in case there is an interruption in the playing process after decreasing the number of overs to 46 for each side on the day that was already scheduled, the elimination match will restart the next day with 50 overs per side.
What’s the least number of overs required for a decision to be made?
For a knockout match to result in a win for one team only, both sides must bat the full 20 overs at least. If the minimum overs cannot be delivered before the cutoff time on the scheduled day, the match will be played again on the reserve day.
However, what will happen if the semi-final or final becomes a tie?
If a tie occurs in the semi-finals, even on the reserve day, then the teams, which were top from the points table, will continue to the final.
Thus, if the first semi-final is washed out or if the result is no decision, England will be the finalist as they were placed higher than South Africa. In the second semi-final, Australia will go ahead as they were the group winners.
And if the final is left undecided, then the two semi-finalists will be declared joint winners of the tournament.
