The ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023 is going to start on February 10 in South Africa, with Australia hoping to lift the trophy one more time. Harmanpreet Kaur and her team are all set to win India their first-ever ICC women's trophy, given the major disappointment that they face in 2020 when the tournament was held the last time.
Team India were just one step away from the title when they reached the final but faced defeat at the hands of Australia. Here, we take a look at India's last performance in this tournament, what went wrong and how did they eventually lose in the final.
A jam-packed final dominated by the hosts
The final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup was played on March 8, 2020, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The tournament, which was started in 2009, saw Australia win their fifth trophy after defeating India by 85 runs. It was also the first time that the Indian team reached the final.
Final recap
After winning the toss, Australian captain Meg Lanning decided to bat. Her team put up a tough total of 184 runs in 20 overs, losing just 4 wickets.
Beth Mooney was the highest scorer for the team with her unbeaten 78 runs. Her opening partner Alyssa Healy hit 75 runs off 39 balls. Deepti Sharma took two wickets from India, while Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadav got a wicket each. In response, the Australian team took the game to their opponents from the beginning as they dismissed four important batters for a score of 30.
Deepti Sharma was the highest run-getter for India, scoring 33 runs. Veda Krishnamurthy scored 19 and Richa Ghosh scored 18 runs. Team India's batters could not do much here and within seven runs the team lost four wickets. The entire team collapsed within 19.1 overs. They were eventually all out for 99 runs.
India's performance throughout the tournament
India topped Pool A and reached the final after beating England behind in a rain-interrupted match. In the other game, Australia defeated South Africa.
The Indian team had actually beaten Australia by 17 runs in their very first match of the tournament. In this game, India scored 132 runs in 20 overs as they reduced the Australian team to only 115 runs. In the second match, the team defeated Bangladesh by 18 runs.
With this win, the team topped Group A. They then defeated New Zealand by three runs and Sri Lanka by seven wickets. In the semi-finals, due to rain, the match was called off without a ball being bowled and yet Team India reached the final against Australia. But here the team had to face defeat.
