ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: Australia defeats India to advance to semi-final

Australia beat India by 9 runs on Sunday at the Sharjah Internationa Stadium in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 Group A game.

Australia posted a total of 151 runs for the loss of 8 wickets before restricting India to a score of 142/9 to close out the game and progress to the semi-finals of the event.

Australian captain Tahlia McGrath opted to bat first after winning the toss, as the Australians opened their innings with Grace Harris and Beth Mooney. The latter, however, fell to Indian pacer Renuka Singh for 2 off 7 cheap deliveries, while Radha Yadav, who had come in as a last-minute replacement for spinner Asha Sobhana, who suffered a knee injury during the warm-up, did not make a mess . of the catch offered by the Australian wicketkeeper-batsman.

Renuka doubled her tally the next ball as she put Georgia Wareham back into the dugout for a golden duck as the Indian seamer caught the Australian in front of the stumps.

With Australia reeling at 17/2 in the third over, captain McGrath came out to bat and made a 62-run stand for the third wicket alongside opener Harris.

Radha dismissed McGrath for 32 off 26 deliveries thanks to some good glovework from Richa Ghosh behind the wicket to leave the Australian captain perplexed.

Deepti Sharma removed Harris for 40 off 41 deliveries as Smriti Mandhana took advantage of the catching opportunity offered by the opener. Ashleigh Gardner joined her teammate soon after as Pooja Vastrakar dismissed the all-rounder for a six-run stand with Radha taking another catch.

Ellyse Perry added 32 runs off 23 deliveries before falling victim to Deepti. Annabel Sutherland made 10 runs before Shreyanka Patil castled the all-rounder.

Sophie Molineux was run out by Jemimah Rodrigues in the penultimate delivery of the innings as Phoebe Litchfield remained unbeaten on 15 off 9 deliveries to take the Australians to a total of 151 for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20-over quota.

India opened the chase with Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana as the former made 20 runs off 13 balls before falling to Gardner. Mandhana was trapped in front of the bats by Molineux for 6 runs off 12 deliveries.

Rodrigues added 16 runs from 12 deliveries before Megan Schutt dismissed the Indian while captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma solidified the innings with a 63-run partnership.

Deepthi was scalped by Molineaux for 29 off 25 as Wareham took advantage of the catching opportunity offered by the Indian all-rounder. Richa Ghosh was caught by Litchfield for 1 run off 3 deliveries.

Pooja fell for 9 to Sutherland before Arundhati Reddy and Shreyanka were bowled out by Litchfield and Mooney respectively.

Radha fell to Sutherland, while Harmanpreet made an unbeaten half-century and did not stand out alongside Renuka, but India ended up 9 runs short of the mark at 142/9 when the challenge failed.