Australia Secures Thrilling 9 Runs Victory to Reach Semi-Finals; India’s Fate Uncertain
Australia defeated India by nine runs in the last group-stage match of the Women’s T20 World Cup that left India’s prospects of making the semi-finals hanging in the balance.
On October 13, 2024, in front of an ardent audience of 14,946 in Sharjah, the match featured high-stakes cricket as both teams struggled with injuries.
Key Performances and Match Results
Australia 151 for 8 (Harris 40, McGrath 32, Perry 32, Renuka 2-24, Deepti 2-28) beat India 142 for 9 (Harmanpreet 54*, Deepti 29, Sutherland 2-22, Molineux 2-32) by 9 runs.
Match Analysis
India’s chances of making the T20 World Cup semifinals have been eliminated following their nine-run loss to Australia in their last group-stage match. India has dropped two of their last four games and will have to wait to find out if they move on to the knockout stages based on tomorrow’s outcome of Pakistan vs. New Zealand. India will be eliminated by any margin of victory for New Zealand, while the semi-finalists will be determined by net run rate in the event that Pakistan wins.
Notwithstanding the tribulations, the competition at last had the suspenseful match it had long been waiting for with a fierce bout in front of a raucous, 14,946-strong Sharjah audience. They witnessed an intense match where both teams were fully conscious of the potential consequences due to injuries.
Tayla Vlaeminck, who is out of the competition, and captain, opener and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy, who arrived on crutches following a foot injury she suffered against Pakistan, were absent from Australia.
After the toss, India also lost Asha Sobhana to a knee injury; Australia granted permission for India to replace her in the XI. Asha was replaced by Radha Yadav, who had previously played as a substitute outfield. Later, after bowling her four overs, Renuka Singh hobbled off the pitch but returned to face the game’s final ball.
At that point, India’s hopes of winning were vanished as their pursuit got off to a strong start but was again derailed by wickets at critical points. After Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma had a 63-run partnership to get them back on track, they were 47 for 3 in the seventh over. Harmanpreet was the only batter standing after a collapse of 6 for 31, and even with a second consecutive half-century, she was unable to lead India over the finish line.
Despite two missed opportunities, four wides, and a no-ball, Australia’s fielding performance was uncommonly disorganized, but they still had enough resources to hold the opposition. when two early defeats, Australia steadied when Grace Harris, opening in Healy’s place, was their top scorer with a 41-ball 40 and had a 62-run stand with Tahlia McGrath. At the end, Ellyse Perry’s 23-ball 32 provided them the much-needed boost.
With 17 runs from their opening 16 balls, Australia was getting off to a slow start until Renuka struck with an angled delivery that evaded Beth Mooney. At backward point, Australia’s senior opener went for it and hit a low chance to Radha, who lunged forward to make a wonderful catch. After being moved up to No. 3, where she has occasionally been utilized as a pinch hitter, Georgia Wareham missed her flick and the first ball she faced thudded into the front pad.
Every single member of Renuka’s crew joined her in appealing and umpiring Eventually, Sue Redfern up a finger as Wareham started to leave. When Wareham returned to the dressing room, Harris asked if she wanted to review, but she declined.
Later, she learned that ball tracking indicated the ball would miss the leg stump by a considerable amount. Perry was kept back by Australia, and McGrath had to rebuild at No. 4 as the stand-in captain.
In the powerplay, Harris and McGrath took Australia to 37 for 2, and they both went on the attack in the eighth over when they faced Pooja Vastrakar. In an over that cost 10 runs and moved Australia past fifty, McGrath smashed her through cover for four, and Harris then scooped her over fine leg.
India was eager to get through as Australia was 65 for 2 midway through their innings, and the Harris-McGrath partnership had grown to 62 off 54 balls.
They looked over an LBW appeal against McGrath off a leg-missing Renuka full toss. Then, on 31, Harmanpreet dropped McGrath off Radha at cover. The ball broke through even though the captain of India had both hands on it. The next ball was blasted into the air by Harris, and Harmanpreet attempted to make an overhead catch but was unable to do so. When Richa Ghosh stumped Radha after McGrath’s charge went wrong, it was India’s third stroke of luck.
Nine balls later, Harris was out when she pushed her WPL partner Deepti to Smriti Mandhana at short mid-on. Ashleigh Gardner’s leading edge found Radha at cover, giving India a decisive advantage over the Australian middle order. Australia were 101 for 5 after 15 overs. When Perry scored 13 runs off of Shreyanka Patil’s third over, she was clearly serious.
When Phoebe Litchfield missed a reverse sweep effort and Deepti argued for leg before wicket, India believed they had made another significant breakthrough.
Litchfield was walking when Redfern handed it out, but Perry persuaded her to review. Even though Litchfield adjusted her stance when the ball was pitched outside leg stump, third umpire Jacqueline Williams believed that Litchfield did so just after the ball was delivered, therefore she asked Redfern to reconsider her decision to not out.
India objected to the decision at first but eventually stopped. At that point, Litchfield was on five, had reached 15 runs without losing, and had smashed a six off the final ball of the innings.
Shafali Verma had to wait until the sixth ball she faced before she could find the boundary with enough force, indicating India’s intentions off the bat. She blasted Megan Schutt over her head for four more runs after slogging Gardner over square leg for India’s opening four, then went all the way and slammed Schutt over long-off.
Shafali quickly reached 20 off 12 balls, but in an attempt to pass Annabel Sutherland at long on, she was caught by Gardner for the seventh time in Twenty20 Internationals.
Australia saw their chance to make a breakthrough when Sutherland gave Jemimah Rodrigues a pat on the pad. After the call was placed, they reexamined it and discovered that the impact had occurred outside of the line. Their subsequent review proved fruitful as Sophie Molineux’s fast, skippy first ball struck Mandhana on the back thigh and defeated her on the pull. Ball-tracking verified that the ball was striking the center of the middle stump, and India’s powerplay came to a close at 41 for 2.
In the seventh over, Rodrigues pulled Schutt straight to Gardner at deep midwicket, giving Australia an a bigger lead. It made it possible for them to squeeze. After Deepti smashed a sweep for four in the eighth over, there were no boundaries for three overs, which meant Australia had secured their place in the semi-finals.
In the eleventh over, Harmanpreet got her maiden boundary as she pushed Darcie Brown through deep square leg off the fifteenth ball she faced. India had to reach the boundary again after 20 balls, in the 14th over, when the needed run rate was more than 10 per over. India required six overs to score sixty-two runs.
The India skipper, particularly as the boundaries dried up, virtually single-handedly kept her side in the hunt. She struck the four that started the chase again at the end of the fourteenth over, and she continued to locate openings in the field to keep India in it. Following Deepti’s dismissal of Wareham for a four-wicked short fine, Harmanpreet split the difference between mid-off and extra cover.
After Deepti and Ghosh were out of the game after three balls, Harmanpreet hit back-to-back fours against Gardner to keep India in the game. She reached her fifty runs off of 44 balls, but she spent much of the last over at the non-striker’s end, watching as four wickets fell and India’s hopes vanished.
