LONDON: Despite Harmanpreet Kaur’s 56, women’s cricket juggernauts Australia sent the Indian side packing at Lord’s, chasing down 171 in 19 overs, with six wickets in hand here on Sunday in its must-win Women’s T20 World Cup match.
Chasing 171, Australia started off the best possible manner, as Beth Mooney (22) and Phoebe Litchfield (24) put on a quick-fire partnership. While India made a strong comeback, all hopes of a place in the next round quickly doused, when Ellyse Perry smashed a stellar 56 off just 38 deliveries, with eight boundaries. Ashleigh Gardner wasn’t too far behind with a 29-ball 53, coming at a strike rate of 182.75. Earlier, India did start well through openers Smriti Mandhana (38) and
Shafali Verma (34), who added 66 runs but safety appeared their first concern rather than scoring fast as the run-rate never really went above 7. There were occasional flares of aggression like Shafali’s two sixes off off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner or Mandhana’s successive fours off pacer Kim Garth.
But Harmanpreet was quite fluent during her stay, exploiting the gentler pace of Wareham and Molineux for some quick runs. The skipper, who reached fifty in 26 balls, flayed her Aussie counterpart for three sixes in a row in the final over, which yielded 23 runs, as India reached 170.
India Women 170/4 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet 56, Mandhana 38) lost against Australia Women 172/4 in 19 overs (Perry 56, Gardner 53)