Australia eliminated India from the Women’s T20 World Cup after claiming a six-wicket victory in their Group 1 clash at Lord’s.
It means Australia top the group and will meet West Indies in the semi-finals at The Oval on Tuesday afternoon, with South Africa finishing second above India following their victory over Bangladesh earlier in the day.
With India posting 170-4, Australia triumphed with an over to spare with Georgia Wareham hitting the winning boundary.
England will face South Africa in the second semi-final at The Oval on Thursday evening,
Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner both struck half-centuries as Australia remained unbeaten in the group stage.
Australia’s Ellyse Perry celebrates her half-century against India
India had needed to win to advance themselves, but while Georgia Voll fell to the second ball of the chase, Perry and Gardner steadied the innings with a 100-run partnership.
Perry, player of the match, struck 56 from 38 balls before losing her wicket to Shree Charani. Gardner was not out for 53.
“We obviously got to see how India bat and knew it was a good wicket and just needed a good partnership,” Perry said.
“Hopefully, two more big games to go. But focus will be on the semi-finals first.”
Despite India posting their highest total against Australia in a Women’s T20 World Cup match, it wasn’t enough for them to come through and for the second successive time they failed to make the semi-finals of the competition.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s potent 56 included three sixes and six fours. Openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma provided a solid platform with a 66-run stand, but the middle order struggled to maintain momentum.
South Africa scrape past Bangladesh
By beating Bangladesh, South Africa left India needing to overcome the Australians to progress. With India losing, South Africa could claim the fourth and last semi-final spot.
They laboured to beat Bangladesh and, by coincidence, the best batters on both teams were out to the first ball of each innings. Juairiya Ferdous swung at and missed Marizanne Kapp and gave the South African pacer her 100th T20 wicket, while South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt was later bowled by Marufa Akter.
South Africa’s Chloe Tryon hits the winning run to beat Bangladesh.
The pair of opening ducks happened only once before at a T20 World Cup, in 2018 between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Bangladesh chose to bat but only made 117-5 in the face of quality bowling by Kapp (1-9) Shabnim Ismail (1-15) and Nonkululeko Mlaba (2-22).
Sobhana Mostary top-scored for Bangladesh with 42 and captain Nigar Sultana was 32 not out off 20 balls to become the team’s leading tournament scorer.
Annerie Dercksen and Tazmin Brits gave South Africa a better start but wickets still fell regularly. Dercksen was caught behind in the 15th over, Kapp was run out in the 18th and Nadine de Klerk fell in the 19th. It took Chloe Tryon to grab the win with two miscued shots.
“We seem to always do this but we take the win,” Kapp said. “A win is a win. Even if it was very scrappy.”
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