Pakistan grouped with Ireland in qualifiers

Pakistan and Ireland have been grouped together in the Women's World Cup Qualifiers in Lahore this November - and face each other first up.

The top team from each pool of four then goes on to play the runners-up in the main semi-finals - and whoever wins that match will be guaranteed a place in the World Cup in Australia in 2009. The two winning semi-finalists will then compete in a final to determine their seeding at the World Cup.

South Africa are in a pool with Bermuda, Netherlands and Papua New Guinea. They should be confident of topping their group. In their matches this summer, South Africa beat Netherlands easily in their own backyard, routing them 3-0.

Bermuda warmed up with an Americas tournament in which the best team was easily the Trinidad and Tobago Under-17s, but they were ineligible for the title - and so it was Canada who went on to win.

There will also be consolidation semis so that it will be possible to rank the teams from 1-8 at the end. The top two, then, will go to the World Cup and the semi-finalists will take positions 7-10 in the women's top 10 list. This means there may or may not be changes to the current top 10, depending on the results.

While Ireland play Pakistan on the first day on November 19, South Africa open up against Bermuda. Netherlands play Papua New Guinea, while Zimbabwe face off against Scotland. The week-long tournament concludes with finals day on November 25.