Indian fans may have to wait some time more for a trophy’s home arrival as India’s World Cup run comes to an end. Indian women lost to Australian women in the first semi-final of the Women’s T20 World Cup by 5 runs.
Having won the toss, Australian captain Meg Lanning decided her ladies would bat first. Aussie openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney quickly added fifty runs in seven overs. Radha Yadav got the first breakthrough for India, dismissing Healy on 25 off 26 balls. However, Mooney and captain Meg Lanning continued to add quick runs for the team. I
The old saying “Catches win Matches” came alive in the game when Mooney and Lanning were both dropped by the Indian fielders at 32 and 1 respectively. Both of them took the opportunities given to them with open arms and continued smashing Indian bowlers all around the park.
Shikha Pandey finally managed to get Mooney out but she had already scored 54 off 37 by then. Some late flourish from Lanning and Ashleigh Gardener helped Australia reach a total of 172 for a loss of 4 wickets. Lanning missed her half-century by just one run and finished the innings not out at 49 off 34 deliveries.
In response, India had a very shaky start and lost their top 3 at a mere score of 28 inside 4 overs. Young prodigy Jemimah Rodrigues and captain Harmanpreet Kaur did some damage control and at one point, their partnership seemed to be taking India home but Darcie Brown tainted India’s plans by dismissing Jemimah Rodrigues. Jemimah managed to score 43 runs from 24 deliveries. India’s score was 97 for 4 from 10.2 overs when Rodrigues got out and it seemed that things were still under control.
However, as wickets continued to tumble, India managed to score 167 runs for the loss of 8 wickets, falling just 5 short of Australia’s total. Even Harmanpreet’s heroic innings of 52 from 34 deliveries could not delay the inevitable. Darcie Brown was the pick of the bowlers for Australia, picking up 2 wickets for 18 runs from her 4 overs. Gardener was awarded the Player of the Match for her all-round performance as she scored 31 runs and picked up 2 wickets in the game.
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