After a dismal present within the Women’s T20 World Cup to date, India must enhance their sport significantly within the first semi-final in opposition to Australia on Thursday.
India, who’ve been among the many prime groups within the final 5 years however have been unable to win a serious trophy, will hope to achieve the semi-finals of one other ICC occasion.
However, they’ve been responsible of self-destruction prior to now, notably in knock-out video games in opposition to England or Australia.
Australia beat India at residence within the final T20 World Cup remaining and just lately within the Commonwealth Games gold medal match in Birmingham.
Women’s cricket in India has grown massively since its final look within the ODI World Cup in 2017 and now the time has come for the crew to transform their promise into efficiency as they step into Thursday’s do-or-die sport.
Though the Harmanpreet Kaur-led facet gained three out of their 4 matches within the group stage, not one of the performances together with the sport in opposition to Ireland may very well be referred to as convincing. Their solely loss got here in opposition to England.
Looking on the means India have performed to date, one can solely hope that one way or the other they’re able to repair all their points for the large sport, be it an inconsistent prime order, barring Richa Ghosh hitting sixes Inability to hit or a excessive dot ball proportion.
Opener Shafali Verma made her worldwide debut greater than three years in the past and though nonetheless an adolescent, she has not been capable of study from her errors, primarily her lack of ability to rotate strike and her sensitivity in opposition to the quick ball.
Skipper Harmanpreet may even be below immense strain to carry out properly, having not executed something noteworthy within the World Cup to date. He is without doubt one of the few batsmen who can hit the ball lengthy however has been inconsistent for a really very long time.
Another defeat in a World Cup knock-out sport might finish his captaincy tenure.
Jemimah Rodrigues has executed properly within the match however must do extra to assist the crew.
Star batsman Smriti Mandhana has been one of many constant performers and as soon as once more she shall be key to the crew’s probabilities in opposition to Australia, who’re recognized to lift their sport to ‘unstoppable ranges’ in a giant sport.
The Meg Lanning-led facet will look to take care of their 22-match T20 successful streak within the semi-finals.
Australia have misplaced simply two official matches in any format since dropping a T20 match to New Zealand in March 2021, however notably, each of these defeats have come in opposition to India. In December, they defeated India 4–1 within the collection performed in Mumbai.
In the bowling division, quick bowler Renuka Thakur has been India’s greatest bowler to date with seven wickets, together with 5 for 15 in opposition to England.
Deepti Sharma conceded runs in her one over in opposition to Ireland, however she has been most constant within the spin division. Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gaikwad and Radha Yadav must be extra correct in opposition to the fiery Aussies.
Australia opener Beth Mooney is cautious of India’s problem though going by previous outcomes they need to win comfortably.
“I expect it to be a great competition, they have pushed us a lot over the years and they’ve got a bunch of match winners,” Mooney instructed reporters right here on Tuesday.
“We aren’t anticipating it to be straightforward by any means, be it with the bat or the ball, however we undoubtedly know the type they’ve come at us prior to now they usually have been excellent about us as properly. know. Harmanpreet mentioned that although her crew misplaced the house collection, the excessive scoring within the 5 matches has given quite a lot of confidence to the gamers.
“I believe that collection gave us quite a lot of confidence, you recognize, the cricket we performed in that exact collection was one thing that gave us quite a lot of confidence.
“And we know them better now. We’ve played five back-to-back games and then a warm-up game, we know their strengths, their weaknesses.” Missed, the opener is match for Thursday’s match.
Teams (from):
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Jemima Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Anjali Sarwani, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gaikwad and Shikha Pandey.
Australia Team: Meg Lanning (c), Alyssa Healy, D’Arcy Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham.
Match will begin at 6:30 PM
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
