🏏ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026: Group A: India W vs Aus W🏏 - Page 2

Weather and conditions

It will be a full house. Both games will be played on the same pitch that hosted England vs West Indies earlier this week. In that match, England posted 186 for 7 and then restricted West Indies to 148 for 5. On Sunday, the weather is expected to be partly cloudy with the temperature hovering around 25°C.

13:42 Local Time, 12:42 GMT, 18:12 IST: South Africa made hard work of it, but they've finally chased down the target of 118 to beat Bangladesh. So India will need to do it all by themselves and will have to be at their best today. They've been nowhere close to it so far with catches being dropped, the middle-order misfiring and the pacers being taken apart. But if that continues against Australia, they might as well say goodbye to their chances. The pain of elimination isn't new for Harmanpreet and her team, nor is the opponent. They both came together in a packaged deal as recently as the 2024 edition, when Harmanpreet watched from the non-striker's end at Sharjah while the dream slipped away. But then came 2025, and the historic triumph in the ODI World Cup where they dispatched the Aussies in a semifinal for the ages. Times have changed and the gap has reduced. Now it's up to them to show what they're made of.

India don't need to look further back than their bilateral series win over Australia in February to know that it can be done. Even in this tournament, they've had some positives, notwithstanding the slip-up against South Africa. The opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma has been going great guns, Richa Ghosh has made an impact, and Shree Charani has been outstanding in almost every match. But there's still a feeling of uncertainty over their best XI. They've tried all 15 players but the problem areas remain unfixed. None of the pacers have really inspired much confidence while the move to go with Yastika Bhatia at number 3 hasn't paid off either. Then there are the dropped catches. India's catching efficiency of 69.3 percent since 2025 is the second-worst among the participating teams in this World Cup. So this isn't just a one-off issue in this tournament.

Saw the prev game bd vs sa

Bd lost cause of the wrong batting order

Their fielding was sooo good today if only they fielded like that vs India

Thanks for the tag Soni.

May the best team win.

Cheers..

India won the toss and opted to BAT first.

They are playing on the same pitch as bangla vs Sa?

Originally posted by: SoniRita

World Cup campaigns are rarely remembered for how neatly they unfold. They are remembered for whether teams find a way through when the stakes are highest. India have reached that point. The flaws that have surfaced over the last fortnight do not disappear overnight, but for one afternoon at Lord's, they may not need to.

The middle order still carries an unsettled look, one in three catches are being put down, and the pace attack has struggled to make early inroads. None of those concerns have vanished. Yet, if India can somehow stitch together one performance of note against Australia, the imperfections can wait. Survival, for now, is all that matters. The timing of the fixtures means there will be no ambiguity by the time they take the field. South Africa's result against Bangladesh earlier in the day will have already set the stage: India will either be playing with the comfort of qualification already secured or in a winner-takes-all contest. Nothing in between.

But it is true that India have stumbled and rumbled their way to London, having withstood surprises and secured victories in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester over the past couple of weeks.

And they couldn't have chosen a tougher opposition for this do-or-die clash than an in-form Australian team. Ironically, despite being the most dominant team in the tournament so far and having rolled past each of their four opponents, Australia haven't secured qualification yet, mathematically speaking.

But to expect anything else would be too far a stretch of miracle. If South Africa beat Bangladesh by 167 runs after scoring 200 and Australia lose to India by 91 runs or with 11.5 overs to spare, Australia's NRR will fail to qualify. The exact qualification requirement will be known to both teams by toss time, and in all likelihood, Australia will have booked a place in the semis by then.

But, for now, they are breathing easy. They know India are under pressure, and wish to double down. India, on the other hand, aren't ready to be bullied by the Australian threat. Seen them, known them, beaten them. And as Smriti Mandhana claims on behalf of the batters, 'everyone is itching to go'.

Oooh against Australia & this is a must win match for us!!

Best of luck, girls!!! Y'all rock

Also thanks for the tags, Soni !!! 🤍

Teams:

Australia Women (Playing XI): Beth Mooney(w), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Sophie Molineux(c), Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton

India Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Shree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur, Kranti Gaud

Molineux: Actually we were going to have a bowl. Pheebs is back in, Alana King is missing out. Just conditions and matchups.

Harman: Going to bat first. Very important game for us, we thought let's just bat freely. One change. Kranti back in place of Nandni. These kind of pitches suit her. It's a fresh day, fresh mind. Today is the day to enjoy ourselves.

Heads is the call from Harman, it's heads

India Women have won the toss and have opted to bat

Nicola Carey: Definitely want to achieve a win. It's a huge game in the context of our group. We want to carry some momentum into the semis. It's a great ground to play at and it's already buzzing. A lot of our girls have spent a lot of time playing over here. There's a knowledge around the group of the different grounds we've played at. Sort of get the hit-and-giggle role I like to call it. Our girls have been amazing at the top of the order. Everyone's contributed at different times and laid really good platforms for the middle to lower order to come in and have fun at the back end.

Pitch and conditions | Natalie Germanos and Matthew Hayden: 71 meters down the ground. 65 and 58 meter square boundaries. Saw a lot of swing in the first game from Kapp and Marufa. Little bit of turn as well.