Sharjah: Defending champion Australian women’s cricket team made it to the semi-finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup by defeating India by nine runs in the Group A match on Sunday. India needed to win the Women’s T20 World Cup at any cost. Australia was strong in front, Harmanpreet Kaur (54 not out) scored a half-century. 14 runs were required in the last over to win. Victory seemed near. There were five wickets left, but Annabel Sutherland spoiled the entire game in the last over.This is how four wickets fell in the last over
India needed 14 runs from the last six balls of this ‘do or die’ match. Pooja Vastrakar (09) was out after scoring one run. Lichfield and Sutherland together ran out Arundhati Reddy as soon as she arrived. It was difficult to score 13 runs in the last three balls. Shreyanka Patil was also run out and Radha Yadav was bowled by Sutherland. Harmanpreet just kept watching while standing at one end and four wickets fell from the other end.
Now the path to semi-finals is difficult
Now India will have to wait for New Zealand’s result on Monday to reach the knockouts and hope that they lose. India have four points in Group A with two wins and two losses. Australia won all four matches and entered the semi-finals by finishing on top by eight points. New Zealand has four points and will have to win over Pakistan on Monday to reach the last four.
What happened in the match?
Australia won the toss and elected to bat and scored 151 runs for eight wickets. In reply, despite Harmanpreet’s half-century and Deepti Sharma’s 29 runs, the Indian team could score only 142 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs. While chasing the target, India also lost two wickets in the powerplay in the form of Shefali Verma (20 runs) and Smriti Mandhana (06). After Jemimah Rodrigues (16 runs) was out in the seventh over, captain Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma (29 runs) together made a partnership of 63 runs in 55 balls for the fourth wicket but the Australian bowlers dashed their hopes. For India, Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma took two wickets each while Pooja Vastrakar, Shreyanka Patil and Radha Yadav got one wicket each.