The Indian women’s cricket team’s dream of winning the T20 World Cup has been shattered once again. Australia defeated India by five runs in the semi-finals. With this win, the Australian team has reached the final for a record seventh consecutive time. Earlier the team also reached the finals in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020. The Australian team also became champions in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2020. At the same time, the Indian team has lost for the fourth time in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. Earlier in 2009, 2010, 2018 also the team was eliminated after losing in the semi-finals.
Batting first after winning the toss, Australia scored 172 runs losing four wickets. The poor fielding of the Indian team was a matter of discussion. Team India missed easy catches of Meg Lanning and Beth Mooney. The result was that Mooney and Lanning played big innings. Mooney played a classy innings of 54 runs in 37 balls. Apart from this, Lanning scored an unbeaten 49 in 34 balls while playing the captains innings. Ashley Gardner played a blistering innings of 31 runs in 18 balls.
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In response, the Indian team could score 167 runs in 20 overs losing eight wickets. At one stage, India had scored 124 runs in 14 overs losing four wickets. Then Team India needed 49 runs in 36 balls. It seemed that the Indian team would easily win the match. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur was at the crease after scoring 43 runs in 30 balls and Richa Ghosh scored 14 runs. After this, Harmanpreet completed her half-century in the next over and was run out in a strange way in the same over. This was the turning point of the match. After taking one run, she forgot to keep the bat inside the crease while taking the second run. Actually the bat got struck in the grass. She could score 52 runs in 34 balls and was looking progressively dangerous for Australia .
As soon as Harmanpreet was dismissed, Richa was also dismissed in the next over after playing a bad shot. India’s hopes ended when Sneh Rana was dismissed in the 19th over. 16 runs were needed in the last over to win. Then Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav were at the crease. However, Team India could only manage 10 runs and lost the match by five runs. Apart from Harmanpreet, Jemima played a sparkling innings of 43 runs in just 24 balls. She played many sweep shots & drives ,cuts. Stars like Shefali Verma, Smriti Mandhana (2) and Yastika Bhatia failed. Ashley Gardner took two wickets. She was adjudged player of the match.
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The Australian team, which came out to bat first, had a great start. Alyssa Healy and Mooney shared a 52-run partnership for the first wicket. Radha Yadav broke this partnership. She got Healy stumped by wicketkeeper Richa. Healy could score 25 runs. After this, Mooney shared a 36-run partnership for the second wicket with Lanning. Poor fielding was seen by the Indian team. The team dropped two catches in two overs. In the ninth over, wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh dropped the catch of Meg Lanning off the ball of Sneh Rana. After this, in the 10th over, Shefali dropped an easy catch of Beth Mooney at the boundary line off Radha Yadav. The ball missed her hand and went for four runs outside the boundary line.
Taking advantage of this, Mooney scored a half-century. She got out as the second wicket. Before getting out, Mooney scored 54 runs in 37 balls with the help of seven fours and a six. Ashley Gardner started playing aggressive shots as soon as she came on the field. She got out after scoring a blistering 31 runs in 18 balls with the help of five fours. Gardner shared a 53-run partnership in 36 balls with Lanning for the third wicket. Australia got the fourth blow in the 19th over. Shikha Pandey clean bowled Grace Harris. She could score seven runs in four balls. Lanning played an unbeaten innings of 49 runs off 34 balls. Shikha Pandey got two wickets from India. At the same time, Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav got one wicket each.
Chasing the target of 173 runs, the Indian team got off to a very poor start. India had lost three wickets in three consecutive overs. Shefali Verma was dismissed in the second over of the Indian innings. She got out after scoring nine runs in six balls. After this Smriti Mandhana was lbw out by Ashley Gardner. She could score two runs in five balls. Yastika Bhatia was run out. She could score four runs in seven balls. India had lost three wickets for 28 runs. After this, Jemima Rodrigues shared a 69-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Harmanpreet.
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Jemima lost the wicket in the 11th over by playing a wrong shot. She got out after scoring 43 runs in 24 balls with the help of six fours. After this, Harmanpreet shared a 36-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Richa Ghosh.
Harmanpreet managed to score 52 runs in 34 balls with the help of six fours and a six, before being run out in a bizarre way. After this, the rest of the batsmen lost wickets by playing wrong shots. Richa 14 runs, Sneh Rana 11 runs and Radha Yadav were dismissed without opening the account. Deepti Sharma remained unbeaten after scoring 20 runs. Apart from Gardner, Darcy Brown took two wickets. At the same time, Megan Schutt and Jess Jonassen got one wicket each.