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.
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.
The 2020 runners-up and four-time semi-finalists are seeking to go all the way in the UAE having been boosted by warm-up wins over the West Indies and South Africa.
Previously, India suffered a disappointing loss in the 2020 T20 World Cup final against Australia and narrowly missed out on victory in the 2017 ODI World Cup, falling just nine runs short against England.
The Women’s T20 World Cup, starting Oct 3, presents another chance to end Indian team’s wait for a global title
While the men’s team won the title after 17 years and lifted an ICC trophy after 11 years, the women’s outfit is yet to lift the T20 World Cup, and came close in the 2020 edition, when they were runners-up in Australia.
Indian opener Smriti Mandhana is out due to viral fever and has been replaced by Richa Ghosh.
Meanwhile, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was also happy with the team's performance and highlighted how the win against four-time champions Australia is a sign of India becoming better as a unit.
Both these sides- India and Australia- had met in the tri-series final recently and are favourites to win the world title.
With youngsters aplenty in a squad that has an average age of 22.8, Harmanpreet has called on her players to step up to the mark against Australia in Sydney.
India have never managed to reach the final of the T20 World Cup and have been knocked out in the semi-finals thrice. In the last edition which was held in 2018 in the West Indies, they lost to 2009 champions England by eight wickets.
