Australia beat India to make Women’s T20 World Cup semi-finals

Australia defeated India in a tight match at the Women’s T20 World Cup in Sharjah on Monday (AEDT), ensuring they will finish top of Group A and make the tournament’s semi-finals.

The defending champions won the toss and chose to bat first, but they were in some early strife when both Beth Mooney (2) and Georgia Wareham (0) fell quickly.

Grace Harris’ 40 runs from 41 balls helped the Australian women recover, and she was helped along by a strong effort from the middle order as Tahlia McGrath and Ellyse Perry both made 32.

Late flurries by Phoebe Litchfield and Annabel Sutherland got the side through to a par score of 8/151.

In response, India got themselves into winning position.

Contributions from Shafali Verma (20 from 13), Jemimah Rodrigues (16 from 12) and Deepti Sharma (29 from 25) alongside the anchoring innings of captain Harmanpreet Kaur (54* from 47) took India to 4/110 from 15.4 overs.

With India needing 41 from the last four overs, the Australian bowlers stepped up and showed why they are heavy favourites to win their seventh Women’s T20 World Cup at most cricket betting sites.

Sophie Molineux got the initial breakthrough to remove Sharma before Megan Schutt picked up Richa Ghosh cheaply the next over.

India fought back through Kaur and Pooja Vastrakar, however, and again looked likely to win with 14 runs needed off the last over.

But it was a catastrophic final over for India, as Sutherland claimed two wickets and set up two runouts to restrict India to 9/142 and a nine-run loss.

“We knew it was going to be a really big challenge for us today,” McGrath said after the match.

“They came really hard at us.

“I am just really proud of the group.

“We have our nerve at the end there.”

Harmanpreet pointed to Australia’s experience in similar moments as a reason they were able to get through such a tight finish.

“We know their experience, they know how to win games like that,” she said.

“They have definitely the experience. They have played so many World Cups together.

“That is something that always shows them that they are a great side.

“I think the difference between them [and us] is that they didn’t give us easy runs.

“We have to learn from them.”

India will now await the result of New Zealand vs Pakistan on Tuesday morning to see if they will qualify from Group A.

New Zealand are $1.22 favourites at PlayUp to defeat Pakistan ($4.33) and claim the last remaining semi-final place.

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