Finance
Australia advanced to their seventh Women’s T20 World Cup final with a five-run win over India in the first semifinal at Newlands Cricket Ground on Thursday, despite a valiant counterattack from captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues.
After Australia’s big players stepped up to make 172/4, India’s top three combined for only 15 runs. Harmanpreet and Jemimah stepped up to the plate, scoring 52 and 43 runs respectively while leading the chase with a brilliant 69-run stand off 41 balls.
However, the duo’s dismissal in 4.2 overs after the ten-over mark meant India could never recover and ended up at 167/8 in 20 overs, falling so close yet so far. India would look at their sloppy fielding efforts and dropping two crucial chances apart from conceding 61 runs in the last five overs.
In chasing 173, India got off to a slow start in the first four overs. Shafali Verma became lbw while attempting to flick off Megan Schutt. While going for a cut-off Ashleigh Gardner, Smriti Mandhana was rapped on pads in front of stumps. Yastika Bhatia was run out cheaply due to a terrible mix-up, leaving India at 28/3.
But Jemimah looked sharp from the start, nailing the pull and drive off Ashleigh. Harmanpreet, on the other hand, started with a sophisticated cover drive off Ellyse Perry. Harmanpreet and Jemimah showed the intent to rotate the strike and look to get a run off almost every ball, with an emphasis on reducing dot-balls, which has been a problem area for India.
Harmanpreet helped herself by beautifully slicing Tahlia McGrath over backward point for four and then cutting and sweeping off Georgia to get back-to-back boundaries, the second of which got her to fifty in the 15th over. However, Harmanpreet was run-out for 52 in the same over when her bat became stuck while attempting to reach the crease.
Darcie struck in the 17th over, catching Richa Ghosh at deep midwicket. Deepti Sharma hit a wide of midwicket off Ashleigh, while Sneh Rana hit a slog-sweep off Megan in the gap between deep square leg and deep midwicket.
With 20 required off the final two overs, Ellyse Perry produced a full-length dive to save a boundary and gave up only two runs off Sneh’s batting in a crucial situation. Jess Jonassen then finished the over by clean bowling Sneh. Deepti’s boundary on the last ball wasn’t enough to save India from defeat, so Ashleigh defended 16 off the final over.
Brief scores: Australia 172/4 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 53, Meg Lanning 49 not out; Shikha Pandey 2-32, Deepti Sharma 1-30) beat India 167/8 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 52, Jemimah Rodrigues 43; Darcie Brown 2-18, Ashleigh Gardner 2-37) by five runs
Source:OCN
