Women's World T20 Cup

1st Semi-Final: AUS-W vs IND-W

Preview

The first semi-final of the eighth edition of the Women's T20 WC 2023 will take place between Women in Blue versus the Almighty Aussies Women on Thursday, 23rd February 2023 at 06:30 PM IST. The five times Women's T20 WC Champions Australia has been brilliant in the league stage, winning 4 out of 4 games and AUS-W comes here with a win against the Host nation SA-W by 6 wickets. Harmanpreet Kaur-led team India has qualified for this game after their win over the Irish Women in the last league game. 

It is going to be a tough task for Harmanpreet's side as they haven't defeated the Australians in the last ten games between the two teams. Meg Lanning's side hasn't lost a single game in the last 20 months and displayed their domination during the league games. An AUS-W loss would be a major upset, and it will be interesting to see if team India can win.

Australia came to this tournament as favourites, and they haven't let themselves down as of now they are invincible in the tournament. AUS-W has demolished their opponents in all four league games and come here with a 6-wicket win against SA-W in their last game thanks to the courtesy of Tahila McGrath who scored 57 off 33 balls that included 10 fours in her match-winning knock. Lanning would like her players to ride this momentum and book their spot in the final. For Australia, Georgia Wareham was the star for Aussies with the ball as she just conceded 18 runs in 3 overs while taking 2 big wickets in the last game.

The Aussies batters Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy have been in top form, and the pair will look to deliver a strong start in this game. Alyssa Healy has scored 146 runs in the tournament so far in 3 matches with an average of 73. The skipper of the side Meg Lanning is an experienced player, and she will look to add runs with Ashleigh Gardner and Ellyse Perry in the middle order. The last game's star Tahila McGrath and the finisher for Australia Grace Harris can score quick runs, and they add solidity to the batting line-up.  

For the Oz side, they would look for early wickets from the joint most wicket-taker in the competition with 8 wickets Megan Schutt and 7 wickets from Gardener, as both these bowlers have done well. The quality bowlers like Darcie Brown and Ellyse Perry will look to trouble the Women in Blue's middle order, which hasn't been in great form. The likes of Jess Jonassen, Alana King, and Harris complete a strong attack for the team. 

IND-W has done well to win three out of their four games in this competition. However, it wasn't the most convincing batting performance from the side in the last two games. Harmanpreet's side struggled to push up the scoring rate in their 5-run win against IRE-W in the last game. The side will need to play out of its skin to win here.  

Batting first, India scored 155 runs for the loss of 6 wickets courtesy of India's left-handed opening batter Smriti Mandhana's blistering innings of 87 runs(56 balls) which included 9 fours and 3 sixes. After this, the Irish side was able to score only 54 runs at the loss of 2 wickets till the 9th over but due to rain interruption, the match had to stop and later abandoned. The skipper of the side Kaur must anchor the innings in the middle order with the match-winner against Pakistan in their opening encounter Jemimah Rodrigues and the finisher for team India Richa Ghosh. India has some depth in their all-rounders with the likes of Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar to add quick runs down the order as the AUS-W would come hard at them.  

Team India's bowlers have a big challenge on hand, and the team will need good spells from Pooja Vastrakar and Renuka Thakur Singh, who has taken 7 wickets in the tournament so far that also included her fifer against ENG-W in the 14th match of the tournament and she can be the star with the new ball against one of the most important matches of her career. The other gun bowlers team India has Shikha Pandey and Deepti Sharma need to bowl good lines and keep the scoring rate under check. Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Kaur must do well in the supporting act. 

The five times WC T20 Champions Australia enjoy clear domination over Women in Blue especially in the shortest format of the game when it comes to head-to-head records. Both sides have faced each other a total of 30 times in the T20 Internationals and the Australia Women have scored a victory a whopping 22 times. Team India has won 7 games while one T20I between the two was abandoned. 

Match Details

Match: AUS-W vs IND-W, 1st Semi-Final, Women's World T20 Cup

Date: Thursday, 23 February

Time: 06:30 PM

Venue: Newlands, Cape Town

Pitch & Weather Report

This venue has traditionally been a good surface to bowl with pace and bounce on the surface. The ball comes onto the bat nicely, making it good for the batters as they can play their strokes freely. Spinners haven't done well on this surface, with little margin for error. 

The Newlands' pitch had some assistance for the bowlers early in the game. But batters have scored runs, and the pitch has remained the same in both innings. Teams have chased big scores at this venue. The side winning the toss shall opt to field first and take advantage of the early conditions. We can see early swing and seam on this surface. Newlands wicket has played well, and batters have scored runs freely. It will be a high-pressure contest, and the side batting would like to score to have 170 on the board.

The maximum temperature will remain at 24°C, with a low of 17°C with 69% humidity, and a solid speed of 31 Km/hr for the 1st Semi-final Match, Women's WC T20 on Feb 23 b/w AUS-W vs IND-W. The weather in Newlands, Cape Town during the match day will be clean with no chances of rain.

AUS-W vs IND-W Squad:

AUS-W: Alyssa Healy (wk), Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning (c), Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown, Annabel Sutherland, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Georgia Wareham

IND-W: Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh, Smriti Mandhana, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani.

AUS-W vs IND-W: Probable XIs

AUS-W: Beth Mooney, Alyssa Healy, Meg Lanning, Grace Harris, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, Kim Garth, Alana King, Darcie Brown, Georgia Wareham

IND-W: Shefali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh

Match Prediction

An epic awaits between the two top sides on Thursday as IND-W will take on AUS-W in the first semis. Both teams are strong contenders for winning the Women's T20 WC trophy this year but only one can pass out this challenge. However, if we compare the two teams, the Aussies have slightly more chances of winning the semi-final match and booking a berth in the final considering their recent record. Meg Lanning's side is unbeatable in the competition with four wins to their name from as many games. Moreover, AUS-W emerged as winners in four of their last T20Is against IND-W. We say Australia to dominate this match.

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