Australia beat India by 5 runs to qualify for the Women's T20 WC for the 7th time

The Knock-outs curse continues once again for the team India. On Thursday, Women in Blue suffered an inch-closing loss against the five-time Women's T20 WC Champions Australia by 5 runs in the first semifinal of Women's T20 WC. In this exciting match, the Aussies, batting first, scored 173 runs in 20 overs at the loss of 4 wickets with courtesy of Beth Mooney's 54 off 37 balls and skipper Meg Lanning's unbeaten 49 off 34 balls. Harmanpreet Kaur-led team India was chasing the target very brilliantly at one time, but due to the sudden loss of wickets, team India lost its momentum and the Aussies won this match by 5 runs and qualifies for the final.

At one time it seemed that Team India would easily win this match and reach the final of the T20 WC for the second time, but the unfortunate run-out of skipper Harmanpreet on a crucial occasion opened the doors for Meg Lanning's side and Aussies grabbed this opportunity from both hands, and Women in Blue's dream shattered once again in the semis.

Talking about this match, after winning the toss, the Australian women's team decided to bat first. After this, both openers Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy took the team's score to 43 runs in the first 6 overs itself. After this, Australia's first wicket fell on the score of 52 when Alyssa Healy returned to the pavilion after playing an inning of 25 runs. Following this, Mooney started the process of scoring fast.

Mooney played a brilliant inning of 54 runs in 37 balls that included 7 fours and 1 six in her innings. While captain Meg Lanning kept one end in check, The middle-order batter Ashleigh Gardner came from the other end and played a brilliant inning of 31 runs in 18 balls that included 5 fours in her blistering knock. Lanning scored 49 runs in 34 balls and contributed significantly in taking the team's score to 173 for the loss of 4 wickets in 20 overs. For team India, Shikha Pandey got 2 wickets while Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma got 1-1 wickets in bowling.

Chasing a score of 174 runs, the Indian team got off to a very bad start when the team got the first blow in the form of Shefali Verma at 11, while Smriti Mandhana also returned to the pavilion at 15. On the score of 28, the Indian team got the third blow, after which captain Harmanpreet Kaur along with Jemimah Rodrigues not only accelerated the run rate but also took the score to 59 runs in the first 6 overs.

From here Jemimah batted aggressively and continued to push the score rapidly but in an attempt to play a bouncer ball, she was caught by Alyssa Healy. She played a crucial inning of 43 runs in 24 balls that included 6 fours in her sublime innings. After this, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur took the responsibility of taking the innings forward, but after completing her half-century, she lost her wicket in the process of taking 2 runs on her score of 52. 

The Indian team was able to score only 167 runs in this match and had to face defeat by 5 runs. For Australia, Brown and Gardner took 2-2 wickets and the Aussies qualify for the record-breaking 7th time in the final.