🏏AustraliaW vs South Africa Women, ICC World Cup Final: Page-11

IND-W vs AUS-Women’s T20 World Cup Semifinal –

India Women finished Group B with six points and a net run rate of +0.253 after defeating Ireland on Monday.

The India side will now square off against the topper of Group A, Australia, in the first semifinal of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 today.

Defending champions Australia Women take on India Women. Australians have been brilliant in the league stage, winning all games, and they come here with a win against South Africa Women.

Indians qualified for this game after their win over Ireland Women in the last league game.

It will be a tough task for the Indian team, as they haven't defeated the Australians in the last ten games between the two teams.

The Australians haven't lost a single game in the last 20 months and displayed their domination during the league stage. An Australian loss would be a major upset, and it will be interesting to see if the Indians can win.

Australia Women

Meg Lanning's side came to this tournament as favorites, and they haven't let themselves down. They have demolished their opponents in all four league games and come here with a 6-wicket win against South Africa Women.

Lanning would like her players to ride this momentum and book their spot in the final.

Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy have been in top form, and the pair will look to deliver a strong start in this game. Meg Lanning is an experienced player, and she will look to add runs with Ashleigh Gardner and Ellyse Perry in the middle order.

Tahila McGrath and Grace Harris can score quick runs, and they add solidity to the batting line-up.

The side would look for early wickets from Megan Schutt and Gardener, as both these bowlers have done well. Darcie Brown and Perry will look to trouble the Indian middle order, which hasn't been in great form. Jess Jonassen, Alana King, and Harris complete a strong attack for the team.

India Women Preview

Harmanpreet Kaur's side has done well to win three out of their four games. However, it wasn't the most convincing batting performance from the side in the last two games.

They struggled to push up the scoring rate in their 5-run win against Ireland Women in the last game. The side will need to play out of its skin to win here.

Smriti Mandhana looks in top gear, and she will need support while opening the batting with Shafali Verma, who has struggled with her scoring rate. Harmanpreet Kaur must anchor the innings in the middle order with Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh.

They would also expect Deepti Sharma and other bowlers to add quick runs down the order as the Australians would come hard at them.

Their bowlers have a big challenge on hand, and the team will need good spells from bowlers, esp from Renuka Thakur Singh with the new ball in the absence of Puja Vastrakar.

Shikha Pandey and Deepti Sharma need to bowl good lines and keep the scoring rate under check. Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Kaur must do well in the supporting act.

India Women haven't defeated Australia Women in the last 10 T20 games between the two teams.

Australia Women haven't lost a game in their last 23 appearances, with the last defeat coming 20 months ago.

Australia Women has won all four league games in the tournament, and all of these by big margins

IND-W vs AUS-W: Probable Playing XIs

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Devika Vaidya, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh

Australia: Beth Mooney (wk), Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning (c), Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Alana King, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown

Pitch Report

The pitch at Newlands is batting-friendly, and spinners may also receive a lot of assistance. There will be plenty of spin and bounce to offer. Batters can look to play their shots after they are at ease. On this field, teams like to defend the total, and two of the last three games were won in the same way.

Weather Conditions

There will be clear skies over Cape Town on February 23, and we shall see early swing and seam on this surface. The pitch has played well, and batters have scored runs freely. It will be a high-pressure contest, and the side batting first shall look to have 170 on the board.

Newlands, Cape Town, has traditionally been a good surface to bowl with pace and bounce on the surface. The ball comes onto the bat nicely, making it good for the batters as they can play their strokes freely. Spinners haven't done well on this surface, with little margin for error.

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Win the T20 WC and make all proud!

Toss:

The wicket has had some assistance for the bowlers early in the game. But batters have scored runs, and the pitch has remained the same in both innings. Teams have chased big scores at this venue. The side winning the toss shall opt to field first and take advantage of the early conditions.

That will be the task in front of India, who have largely been solid at this tournament without necessarily catching the eye. Even in Monday's game against a semi-professional, part-time cricket team in Ireland, who dropped five catches, Harmanpreet Kaur's side never fully stamped their authority on proceedings. In the end they won by just five runs when rain intervened.

Most teams seem to recognize that the only way to dismantle Australia is by taking the game to them, and India will be following the same approach. "They attack a lot," wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh said. "So, whatever happens to them, even if the batsman is out, they don't leave the attacking. Because they have batters from top to bottom. We also have a batter from top to bottom. So, we will play an attacking game."

Whether India are capable of this remains to be seen. They struggled against England's spinners over the weekend, getting bogged down in the middle overs and falling away in their chase. A much-improved showing will be required against Australia's extensive spin line-up.

If there is a flicker of optimism, it comes from the fact that Australia have lost just one of their last 21 T20Is since April 2021, and it was to India. Even that, however, was in a Super Over, which shows just how infrequently such opportunities have come along for teams that faced up to Meg Lanning's superstars recently.

What to expect: New lands has seen an awful lot of cricket this summer, so it wouldn't be a surprise if the surface is a little tired. That said, Richa Ghosh seemed optimistic about it in the pre-match press conference, saying that it "looked good" and that India could target 180 if their batting clicked. In truth a score of around 160 is likely to be competitive.

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One hour to go! Here is the semifinal between India Women vs Australia Women.⭐️

With tears locked in her eyes, Lanning said "We came here to win...obviously...um..not a lot of positives. We played some good cricket throughout but only in patches though and we weren't able to really put the perfect game together (in the semis). They (India) were too good today, outplayed us in all facets of the game. To win a World Cup you have to be consistent and put together performances back-to-back and I don't think we were quite able to do that"