Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner have powered Australia to a record-breaking T20 World Cup win at Lord’s, knocking India out of the tournament with an emphatic six-wicket win.
With India needing to topple Australia to advance to the semi-finals, Harmanpreet Kaur’s 27-ball 56 powered her team to 4-170, leaving their rivals needing to pull off the highest chase in the tournament’s history.
A tight start had Australia 3-85 after 9.1 overs, but Perry (56 from 38) and Gardner (53no from 29) came together in a 100-run fourth-wicket stand to power Australia home with six balls to spare, vanquishing their fierce rivals in the process.
Australia had little material peril riding on the result, having already secured top spot in the group and a semi-final against the West Indies, but the chance to eliminate India – who ended their own ODI World Cup hopes last October – was a mouth-watering prospect.
Riding every ball alongside the Australians were South Africa, who had earlier in the day sealed a nervy win over Bangladesh but who were relying on an India defeat to lock in a semi-final berth.
Australia will now meet the Windies at The Oval in the first semi-final on Tuesday (11:30pm AEST) while hosts England meet South Africa at the same venue on Thursday (3:30am Friday AEST).
It also means India, the reigning ODI World Cup champions, have missed the knockouts of the T20 version for a second consecutive tournament, having also been eliminated early in 2024.
Renuka Thakur handed India the ideal start with the ball when she trapped Georgia Voll lbw (4) in the opening over of Australia’s chase.
Phoebe Litchfield, returning to the XI from a quad injury, and Beth Mooney saw Australia to 1-49 at the end of the Powerplay – their equal-lowest of the tournament so far.
With the Indian attack building pressure, Litchfield (24 off 25) picked out long off, and Mooney (22 off 20) holed out to the off-spin of Deepti Sharma, leaving the Aussies 3-85 still needing 103 runs from 65 balls.
Perry, fresh off her first T20 World Cup fifty in the previous game, was joined by Gardner and at the end of the 12th their required rate had crept to 10.75.
Gardner then flicked the switch, hitting a four followed by a six off Radha Yadav as 17 runs came off the 13th over.
From there the floodgates opened, with 81 runs coming off overs 13-18.
The Australian pair went after the tournament’s leading wicket taker Sree Charani – taking 16 off her in the 15th – and when Harmanpreet turned back key quick Renuka Thakur to bowl the 17th, a further 17 runs came off that as Perry’s half-century came off 33 balls.
With their tournament slipping away and the pressure mounting, mistakes crept into India’s game.
There was a misfield through Kranti Gaud’s hands that went for four, while a wider Thakur delivery landed off the pitch, gifting Perry a free hit.
By the end of the 17th over, the required rate was under a run a ball.
Gardner’s second fifty off the tournament came off 28 balls in the 18th, and while Perry was dismissed with three from nine balls still required, Georgia Wareham iced victory with a powerful drive straight down the ground.
Earlier, a late explosion led by Harmanpreet, a tactical retirement and wayward fielding from Australia – put under extreme pressure in the field for the first time in the tournament – saw India pile on 36 runs from the final two overs of their innings to post 4-170.
Up to that point, Australia had managed to contain India’s powerful line-up without making major inroads, as just two wickets fell in the first 19 overs, with one of those a run-out courtesy of a major mix-up between Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rogrigues.
Harmanpreet elected to set Australia a target after winning the toss and Mandhana safely navigated the Powerplay alongside Shafali Verma without breaking the shackles, reaching 0-43 at the end of the first six.
Skipper Sophie Molineux waited until the 10th over to bring herself into the attack and found immediate success, bowling Verma for a 26-ball 34 to end the opening partnership on 66.
The in-form Mandhana looked poised to go big against Australia once again but an unfortunate mix-up with Rodrigues in the 12th over, where the latter was caught ball watching and Mandhana had advanced too far down the pitch to backtrack in time, saw the India vice-captain run out for 38 off 37.
Rodrigues was joined by her captain in a 64-run stand with neither fully able to break the shackles as they saw India to 2-134 after 18 overs, and Australia would have fancied their chances of keeping India to a total around 150.
Rodrigues was then dropped twice in two deliveries – including over the rope for six by Wareham – as Annabel Sutherland went for 13 from the penultimate over.
One silver lining to Australia’s inability to break the Harmanpreet-Rodrigues partnership was that it had left India’s most powerful hitter Richa Ghosh on the bench deep into the innings.
India clearly shared that sentiment, and Rodrigues was retired out at the end of the 19th to allow Ghosh to come to the middle.
The move did not pay off, however, with Ghosh scoring a single off the first ball of Molineux’s final over to get off-strike, and it was Harmanpreet who gave India the impetus they sorely needed, hitting three consecutive sixes with the third of those dropped over the rope by Litchfield.
Her fifty came off just 25 balls, but she departed a ball later after hitting a catch straight to Perry at mid-on, and Deepti Sharma edged the only delivery she faced for four – courtesy of another misfield – to push the Indian total to 170.
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026
Australia squad: Sophie Molineux (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Nicola Carey, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham. Travelling reserve: Tahlia Wilson
Australia’s Group 1 fixtures
June 13: beat South Africa by 65 runs
June 17: beat Bangladesh by nine wickets
June 20: beat Netherlands by 98 runs
June 24: beat Pakistan by 113 runs
June 28: beat India by six wickets
Semi-final 1: Australia v West Indies, The Oval, London, June 30, 11:30pm AEST
Semi-final 2: England v South Africa, The Oval, London, July 2 (3:30am July 3 AEST)
Final: Lord’s, London, July 5 (12:30am July 6 AEST)
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
