Women’s T20 WC: Harmanpreet’s fifty in vain as Australia beat India to reach semis
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur's unbeaten 54* went in vain as Australia beat India by nine runs in Group A match to reach Women's T20 World Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
Though West Indies Women handed India a heartwrenching one-run defeat in the first ODI, star batter Harmanpreet Kaur won everyone’s heart after grabbing a stunning airborne catch in the contest on Friday.
Harmanrpreet was fielding at the long-on boundary in the 50th over when West Indies captain Stefanie Taylor, who made 94 off 91, struck the last ball of Ekta Bisht to send the ball outside the boundary ropes of the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
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When it seemed the ball would easily sail over for a six, which would have also resulted in a hundred for Taylor, Harmanpreet cut its trajectory with a one-handed stunner. She timed her jump to perfection and caught the ball mid-air before landing safely and well inside the ropes.
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@ImHarmanpreet Kaur.
November.
In the Caribbean.
Things happen.
And this is just a catch.
West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor fell for 94 – yes, 94.pic.twitter.com/4mhFRwWRMf
— Annesha Ghosh (@ghosh_annesha) November 1, 2019
About the match:
Priya Punia’s 75-run innings went in vain as the Indian women’s cricket team failed to chase down 226 runs and fell one-run short of West Indies in their first ICC Women’s Championship ODI of the three-match series.
Earlier, Taylor won the toss and decided to bat.
Riding on a swashbuckling knock of 94 from Taylor and 51 from Natasa McLean, West Indies posted a competitive total of 225 for 7 in their stipulated quota of 50 overs. Chedean Nation’s 43-run knock towards the end of the innings helped West Indies’ cause.
For India, Shikha Pandey (2 for 38) and Deepti Sharma (2 for 41) did well to restrict the West Indies to a mediocre total.
Defending the target, which for once seemed to be a cakewalk for India when they were 78 without loss, off-spinner Anisa Mohammed claimed a five-fer for 46 runs. Anisa was duly accompanied by Taylor (2 for 30) and Shabika Gajnabi (2 for 25).
India lost wickets in regular intervals and as a result they failed to score eight runs in the last over with Anisa removing Ekta Bisht (0) and Poonam Yadav (0) in the first and final deliveries, respectively, to hand West Indies a spectacular win.
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