India will face the indomitable Australian cricket side in the first semifinal of the 2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Cape Town on Thursday, February 22. The odds are stacked against the Women in Blue, who have been patchy in the tournament but will hope to flush away their blues and lift their game in this must-win encounter.
India have been among the top teams in T20I cricket for the last five years. However, they have been unable to win a major trophy despite making the semifinals and finals of multiple ICC events. This is especially on display if their knock-out games are against England or Australia.
Australia beat India in the ICC 2020 Women's T20 World Cup final and once again during the Commonwealth Games gold medal match in Birmingham in 2022.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side won three of their four group games and their only loss came against England. Their over-dependence on Richa Ghosh and Smriti Mandhana was their downfall against England and highlights the inconsistency of the top-order.
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The skipper herself will be under immense pressure after a subpar World Cup. Her ability to smash the ball across the field is well-noted but she has not replicated this form in the tournament. Another loss in a World Cup knock-out game could end her captaincy tenure.
In the bowling department, pacer Renuka Thakur has been India's best bowler in the event with seven wickets so far, including a five for 15 against England. Deepti Sharma was expensive in her one over against Ireland, but she has been the most consistent in the spin department. The likes of Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Radha Yadav will have to be much more accurate against the rampaging Aussies.
Heading into the semifinal, the Meg Lanning-led side are heading into the tournament with a 22-match winning streak in T20I cricket. They have lost just two official matches in any format since a T20I game against New Zealand in March 2021, but notably, both of those defeats have come against India. In December, they outplayed India 4-1 in the series played in Mumbai.
But Australia opener Beth Mooney is wary of India's challenge. "I'm expecting it to be a huge contest, they've pushed us significantly in the last few years, and they have a bunch of match winners in that line-up as well. We're not expecting it to be easy by any means, whether it's with a bat or the ball, but we certainly know the style of play they've come at us with in the past and they know ours pretty well, too," she told reporters on Tuesday.
Although wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy missed Australia's final group game against South Africa with quad soreness, the opener is fit for Thursday's match, skipper Lanning confirmed, "Alyssa Healy is fit and available, which is great for us. She's had a great tournament so far and is going to play an important role. So that's nice, but it does make it pretty difficult to get it down to XI".
Harmanpreet said that though her team lost the home series, the players got a lot of confidence out of the high scoring five games. "I think that series gave us a lot of confidence, you know, the brand of cricket we played in that particular series was something which gave us a lot of confidence.
"And now we know them very well. We played five games back-to-back and then one practice game, we know, their strength, their weakness."
Teams
India
Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Shikha Pandey.
Australia
Meg Lanning (c), Alyssa Healy, Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham.
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