ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023, Semi-Final 1, India vs Australia: Beth Mooney's 54, Harmanpreet Kaur's 52 and Darcie Brown's 2-18 are top performances. India Women lost to Australia by 5 runs in semis. Australia advance to 7th consecutive final.
Brief Scores: Australia 172-4 (Beth Mooney 54, Meg Lanning 49*, Shikha Pandey 2-32) beat India 167-8 (Harmanpreet Kaur 52, Jemimah Rodrigues 43, Darcie Brown 2-18) by 5 runs
Player of the Match: Ashleigh Gardner - 31(18) & 2-37
Australia Women beat India Women by 5 runs in the first semi-final match in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 at Newlands in Cape Town on February 23.
India’s sloppy fielding effort cost them big
India will continue to ponder upon what they did wrong to get too close to Australia’s target and still not cross the finishing line. It was the sloppy fielding and the casual body language of the Indian fielders while bowling that cost them in the semi-final clash against Australia.
The sloppy ground fielding by India converted non-existent runs into singles, singles to twos and fours that helped Australia pile up the runs. Also, the two important dropped chances of Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning made things much more difficult for India as they went on to score 54 and 49*, respectively. Beth Mooney was dropped at 32 by Shafali Verma off the bowling of Radha Yadav, and the batter went on to add 22 runs more to her score from then on. Meg Lanning was dropped at 2 by Richa Ghosh off the delivery of Sneh Rana and she batted incredibly well in the death overs scoring 49* and taking Australia to 172. These batters committed mistakes once but the lifelines they earned through awful misses, they capitalised on these and rubbed salt on the wounds of India.
India fell only 5 runs short while chasing the target of 173 put up by Australia
Australian skipper Meg Lanning won an important toss and opted to bat against India in the first semi-final match of the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup on Thursday at Newlands in Cape Town. Harmanpreet Kaur came back to lead Team India, after she was being suspected to be ruled out of the match due to an illness.
Australia got off to a decent start batting first scoring 43 runs in powerplay without losing any wicket. The pitch had not got much pace and bounce to offer which is contrary to what Australia are acquainted playing in, so the openers were cautious and defensive in their approach in the powerplay. Radha Yadav came into the attack and gave India a big breakthrough. Radha bowled a wide outside off delivery and tempted Alyssa to go for a big shot; Alyssa premeditated the shot, the ball stayed low and Richa Ghosh completed the stumping.
Beth Mooney, playing against her favourite team India against whom she averages 50.94 in 21 matches, took the onus of scoring and she accelerated just at the right time and scored 54 off 37 before being dismissed by Shikha Pandey; Mooney cut it straight to Shafali Verma at point. Ashleigh Gardner had a wonderful cameo scoring 31. Grace Harris was promoted up the order but she couldn’t stay up longer on the crease and was dismissed by a ripper from Shikha Pandey. Meg Lanning was hesitant and struggling with her shots in the initial phase of her play but she made up for it smoking Renuka Thakur in the final over and she scored a vital 49 off 34 which helped Australia post a big total of 172/4 on the big semi-final day.
India got off to a horrible start while chasing the mammoth 173 as they lost opener Shafali Verma (9) leg before wicket to Megan Schutt. India didn’t get much time to recover and lost the wickets of Smriti Mandhana who got out leg before wicket to Ashleigh Gardner and Yastika Bhatia got run out while trying to steal a non-existent single. India lost 3 quick wickets of Shafali, Smriti and Yastika pressing the panic button across the Indian camp.
Jemimah Rodrigues was unfazed by the quick fall of wickets and pressed the peddle just when things were starting to looking gloomy for India. She was well supported by the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur; they stitched up an important partnership and accelerated the scoring by some beautiful power-hitting and beautifully middled and timed shots across and down the ground. India recovered well after the early fall of wickets and scored 59/3 in the powerplay overs. Just as the partnership was looking to threaten Australia, they got an important breakthrough and dismissed Jemimah when she was looking to heave a shot over the keeper off a slow bouncer by Darcie Brown. Jemimah Rodrigues scored an important 43 off 24 to take India close to the winning runs.
Harmanpreet Kaur steadied the innings and scored an important 52 off 34 balls before being run out as her bat was stuck on the ground and couldn’t cross the line on time when India were required to score 40 off 32 balls. Jersey number 7 being run out in a semi-final clash is not a new sight for the Indian fans to behold; this jinx continues to exist.
Richa Ghosh couldn’t stay long and got dismissed at 14 off 17 off the ball of Darcie Brown while she tried to go big. Dot balls, regular fall of wickets and the steadily creeping required run rate piled up the pressure on the tailenders and India succumbed to it just 5 runs shy of the total runs scored by Australia.
Let’s look at them top performances from the semi-final between India and Australia in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023.
Beth Mooney continues with her dominant show against India
Beth Mooney is just another name for consistency when it comes to performing in crucial knock out matches. Beth Mooney has scored 817 runs in 22 matches at an average of 48.05 against her favourite opponents India.
In the previous knock out game which was a Commonwealth Games final between India and Australia, Beth Mooney scored 78* off 54. This time also Beth Mooney continued with the same trend of scoring big in an important knockout event against India. In the semi-final clash this time around, she scored 54 off 37. She was dropped earlier by Richa Ghosh off a delivery of Sneh Rana. The missed catch opportunity proved too costly for India and she kept on accelerating with each ball after the completion of powerplay overs, scoring boundaries and sixes all across the ground after Australia got off to a defensive start.
Read More: T20 WC 2023, IND-W v ENG-W: Slow run rate causes heartbreak for India despite Renuka's 5-15
Harmanpreet Kaur’s valiant big match effort couldn’t take India home
India lost three important wickets of Shafali, Smriti and Yastika on the trot with just 28 runs on the board. Jemimah Rodrigues being unaffected by what had happened at the other end started to score freely. Harmanpreet Kaur on the other hand didn’t take much time to get to the party and started scoring all around the ground, putting Australian bowlers into a spot of bother.
Harmanpreet Kaur is a player who performs in big matches and big tournaments and on Thursday she lived up to her reputation. She stitched an important partnership of 69 runs with Jemimah Rodrigues which helped India to get stabilised after a really horrendous beginning. Harmanpreet Kaur scored consistently, took singles and twos, hit boundaries and was getting India much closer to Australia’s target. But it seemed like destiny had the last laugh as her bat got stuck at the pitch and she was found short of her crease and was adjudged run out.
Read More: T20 WC 2023, IND-W v WI-W: Clinical bowling helps Ind win; Deepti 1st Indian to take 100 T20I wkts
Darcie Brown didn’t allow India’s batters to score freely
When Australia’s bowlers were threatened by the valiant partnership between Jemimah and Harmanpreet, it was the lone warrior Darcie Brown who kept things tight with an economical spell of 4-0-18-2.
Brown provided the much important breakthrough in the form of Jemimah Rodrigues just when India looked promising enough to snatch the match away from Australia. She didn’t allow India’s batters to score easy runs. Of course, Australia’s impeccable ground fielding sans few dropped chances piled up enormous pressure on India while chasing.
Brown also got the important wicket of Richa Ghosh who has the capability to take the match away with her power-hitting intent. While other Australia bowlers struggled at some point in the match, it was Darcie Brown who was consistently tight with her bowling throughout the match.
Special mention must be credited to Ashleigh Gardner who kept her nerves at the crucial stages in both the innings. When Gardner came out to bat, Australia had lost the wicket of Alyssa Healy and on the other end, Meg Lanning was struggling with her timing the ball. It was Gardner’s quickfire 31 off 18 that denied India a solid comeback even after they got Healy.
While bowling, Gardner got an important wicket of Smriti Mandhana and it’s known what Smriti can do if she gets a start. She also bowled the final over of the match defending 16 runs; she got the wicket of Radha Yadav and most importantly she bowled dot balls which was akin gold dust for Australia. For her spectacular contribution in two innings, Ashleigh Gardner was declared the player of the match.
Statistical Highlights
Beth Mooney completed 800 runs vs India in Women’sT20 matches in 22 innings.
Most matches played by opening pairs in Women’s T20 WC:
15* - Alyssa Healy & Beth Mooney Australia
14 – Charlotte Edwards & Sarah Taylor England
10 – Lizelle Lee & Dane van Nieker South Africa
Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney become the first pair ever to share 2 fifty-plus partnerships in women’s T20I knockouts.
115 v IND, 2020
52 v IND, 2023
Beth Mooney is the first player to have 2 fifty-plus scores against the same opponents in T20 World Cup knock outs (men/women).
Highest partnership for India in Women’s T20 WC knockouts:
69 – Harmanpreet & Jemimah v AUS, today
57 – Harmanpreet & Raut v AUS, 2010
Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues become the first Indian pair to share 2 fifty-plus stands in women’s T20I knockouts.
Highest total in losing cause in Women’s T20 WC:
167/8 – India vs Aus, 2023
163/5 – Aus vs Eng, 2009
160/9 – NZ vs Ind, 2018
158/4 – SA vs WI, 2010
151/7 – NZ vs Aus, 2020
Australia maintains a 4-2 lead over India in the matches played in the ICC T20 WORLD CUP tournament.
What’s Next
It’s curtains for Team India at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. Australia have reached the final and await the winner of the other semi-final clash to be played between England and South Africa on February 24 at Newlands in Cape Town.
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