Can Harmanpreet Kaur and co. avenge last T20 World Cup final defeat against mighty Australia?
In the 30 T20Is played between the two teams, Australia are dominating with 22 victories, while India have won just seven matches.
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IND-W vs AUS-W
Harmanpreet Kaur and co. have so far produced decent performances against teams like Pakistan, Ireland, and West Indies. They faltered against England in their Group stage match and now, they will face nemesis Australia in the first semi-final of the Women’s T20 World Cup on Thursday at the Newlands stadium in Cape Town.
India women do not have a great head-to-head record against Meg Lanning’s women. In the 30 T20Is played between the two teams, Australia are dominating with 22 victories, while India have won just seven matches.
They last clashed against each other on December 22, when Australia emerged victorious in the series. In those last five T20Is, Australia won four, while India managed just one victory in a Super Over thriller.
In the previous T20 World Cup in 2020, Australia defeated India by a huge margin of 85 runs in the final. The same result was seen at the Commonwealth Games last year in Birmingham where Australia beat India by nine runs.
Areas of concern for Harmanpreet Kaur and co.
India wouldn’t want to repeat these mistakes when they’ll face Australia in the semi-final. Except for Richa Ghosh, others were not much impressive in their ability to hit sixes. The top order is also inconsistent.
Only star batter Smriti Mandhana has scored consistently in the tournament. She missed the campaign opener against Pakistan due to a finger injury but went on to become the high-scorer for India, amassing 149 runs in three matches. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur herself hasn’t done much in the tournament so far. Opener Shafali Verma has to improve on rotating the strike.
“Well, we always enjoy whenever we play against Australia and no matter, you know, we play against them in semis or any other tournament, we always want to give 100 percent,” Harmanpreet said in a post-match conference.
“Because whenever you do well against Australia, you always get good confidence. And that it will be a very crucial game for both teams. We just want to go and enjoy our cricket,” she added.
Australia have lost just two matches in T20Is since March 2021, but both defeats have come against India. “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,” Aussie’s star batter Beth Mooney told reporters on Tuesday.
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Gouri Das
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