Ireland's opening pair of Cecelia Joyce and Clare Shillington gave their side an outstanding start in almost every match, and both individually and as a combination they are the natural choice to open. Joyce was the leading run-scorer overall with 152 runs at an average of 38.00, and she and Shillington (with 106 at 21.20) were among only five batters in the entire tournament with a strike rate of 100.00 or better.
Another successful opener who earned her place in the side and is therefore selected to bat at No. 3 is Zimbabwe captain Chipo Mugeri, who made 120 runs at an average of 40.00. Her strike rate was rather lower than some others, but she played important innings in a weaker batting side, and her bowling also provided a useful contribution.
Almost the first name to go onto the list was that of China's skipper Huang Zhuo. Dismissed only once in five innings, she averaged a remarkable 122.00 with the bat, and the power of her hitting stood out in a side which often struggled to create momentum.
To complete the array of captains, winning Ireland skipper Isobel Joyce is, unsurprisingly perhaps, our choice to lead the combined side. Batting in the middle of a strong order she only made 58 runs, but she scored them at a rate of 103.57, and her 10 wickets at 8.10 made her one of the outstanding allrounders in the competition as well as being an astute skipper.
Another allrounder was Rumana Ahmed of Bangladesh, who deservedly won the ICC's own Player of the Tournament award. Her leg spin gained her 14 wickets at an almost absurd average of 3.64 and an economy rate of 2.68, emphasizing the extreme value of a quality leg spinner at this level of cricket, while her unbeaten innings of 38 in the final showed that she could also make a useful contribution in this department.
Although her contributions were statistically more modest, Laura Delany's performance for Ireland in the final clinched her place in the middle order. Batting with great composure, she saw her side to victory, but in a tournament where there were few effective seamers on show her medium-pace bowling was a valuable asset for the Irish team, and her fielding was consistently excellent.
Pauke Siaka of Papua New Guinea was another talented allrounder whose statistics do not reflect the value of her contribution to the team. She played one notable innings to give her side victory over the Netherlands, and she too was among the better seamers taking part in a tournament largely dominated by the spinners.
The outstanding wicketkeeper was Niger Sultana of Bangladesh, who stood out with 6 catches and 6 stumpings in five matches. She was no doubt aided by the quality of her side's spinners, but her quality with the gloves was undoubted, and when promoted to open the batting in the final she demonstrated that there, too, she is no mean performer.
To complete the spin department, CricketEurope chose another Bangladesh bowler, off-spinner Khadiza Tul Kubra. Omitted for the first game, she quickly showed her value when she came into the side, and her demolition of Papua New Guinea, returning the best individual figures of the tournament with five for 11, was one of the outstanding efforts we saw.
The most consistent of the seam bowlers, Ireland's Lucy O'Reilly, completes the CricketEurope XI. Her six wickets came with an outstanding economy rate of 3.63, and she repeatedly bowled well at critical moments, even when visibly suffering from the Bangkok heat and humidity.
There's only room for eleven players in a cricket team, and inevitably we had to omit some players whose performances brought them strongly into contention. These included Netherlands opener Miranda Veringmeier, who was not only among the leading run-scorers and a valuable wicketkeeper, but who also sometimes took the pads off and came on to bowl.
Her team-mate Sterre Kalis also made consistent runs and at 16 was one of the outstanding prospects in the tournament. Her scoring rate, however, was below that needed in T20.
Among Scotland's leading players, left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon and allrounder Rachel Scholes might be considered unfortunate not to have made the selection. Both made important contributions to their side's fourth place in the competition, which in turn attested to the progress made by Scotland in its development of women's cricket.
Ireland leg-spinner Ciara Metcalfe, with 7 wickets in all including three in the final, and consistent Bangladesh middle-order batter Fargana Hoque also staked strong claims, reinforcing the idea that in terms of strength in depth their sides were far and away the strongest in the tournament.