WWC 2017, IND v AUS review: Australia subdue India to go through to the semi-finals

Team India had to taste it’s second consecutive defeat in the ongoing Women’s World Cup, as Australia took the game away from them and won by an enormous margin of 8 wickets. The Australian lasses showcased exemplary performances both with the bat and ball to outdo the Indian team. Although Indian skipper, Mithali Raj established a milestone in the history of women’s cricket, it wasn’t enough to get her team over the line. Australia are now through to the semis of the tournament,

Having won the toss, the Australian Women’s team put the Indians into bat. Opener Smriti Mandhana fell cheaply for a total of 3 runs on a turning delivery by Ashleigh Gardner; her 4th single digit score in a row. Punam Raut and skipper, Mithali Raj took their own sweet time to settle, with the occasional boundary. However, once into the 19th over, the duo switched gears and went all guns blazing at the opposition.

Punam and Mithali looked to build a strong partnership by hitting the well-calculated boundary per over and rotating the strike judiciously. The Indians skipper smashed another milestone, as she went past Charlotte Edwards tally of 5992 runs to become the highest run-getter in Women’s ODI cricket.

However, the Indian women couldn’t accelerate as much as they would have liked as Gardner and Megan Schutt dried up the runs with some consistent, tight bowling. Mithali, having survived an LBW scare in the 39th over, was dismissed by leg-spinner, Kristen Beams for a gritty knock of 69 runs off 114 balls. Beams executed a sharp caught-and-bowled to send the skipper back to the pavilion.

There was no stopping Raut, who went on to smash Jess Jonassen and every other bowler in the opposition with her fiery drives, to bring up her second ODI hundred in style. Harmanpreet Kaur, at the other end, tried to step on the gas pedal and hit the bowlers all over the park. Among her shots, a particularly memorable one was when lobbed Jonassen for a monstrous six over deep mid-wicket.

Ellyse Perry was the star bowler for the Aussie side, having picked up two wickets, including the crucial one of Raut while conceding a meagre 37 runs in 10 overs. Schutt and Gardner picked up 2 and 1 wickets, with an astounding economy of 5.20 and 4.80 respectively.

The middle-order woes trouble India once again

Sadly, India couldn’t keep up the momentum and fell prey to their Achilles’ heel: middle order instability. After Raut (106 runs off 136 balls) lofted a shot straight down the throat of backward square leg off a delivery from Perry, the batting fell through and how! Owing to a terrible mix-up between Kaur and Vedanta Krishnamurthy, the latter was dismissed on the very next ball for a golden duck. The next four overs saw the fall of 3 wickets for paltry runs in the form of Kaur (23), Jhulan Goswami (2) and Sushma Verma (6). India finished at 226/7 at the end of their quota of 50 overs, way less than what they would’ve wanted when Raut and Raj had been batting.

Australia cruise to victory

The Aussies never looked in a spot of bother throughout their chase. Openers Nicole Bolton and Meth Mooney looked at ease in the first 15 overs. The leading Indian bowlers Ekta Bisht and Jhulan Goswami were unable to put a break to the opposition’s juggernaut, as Bolton and Mooney smashed them for boundaries through the midwicket, mid-on, square leg and every other part of the ground. Notably, Bolton toyed with the bowling attack as she smacked 4 consecutive boundaries off the last 3 deliveries of the 11th over off the slow left-arm bowler, Bisht.

India, however, tried to pull back the game in their favour as they dismissed both the openers in the 16th and 23rd overs. Keeper Verma took a good catch of Bolton (36), off a slow-bounce, drifting delivery from Punam Yadav, and Mooney was unfortunately run out by the skipper, Meg Lanning for 45 runs.

But that was hardly a reason for India to rejoice as batters, Perry and Lanning guided their team through to the semi-finals. Lanning scored a stupendous knock of 76 at a strike rate of 86.36 while her partner, Perry hit an important knock of 60 runs off 67 balls. Yadav was the only fortunate wicket-taker for India with figures of 1 wicket for 46 runs in 8 overs. The other bowler, in spite of possessing good economy rates, were rendered incapable of defending the scanty total of 226 against the mighty batting line-up of Australia.

The victory for the Aussie Women came in the 46th over off a straight-bat boundary hit by Perry on a ball bowled by Goswami. Australia, with this victory of 8 wickets, secured a spot in the semi-final stage of the World Cup while finishing at the top of the points table. Meg Lanning was adjudged Player of the Match for her batting heroics of 76 (88) with 7 4’s and one 6.

Brief scores:

India: 226/7 in 50 overs (Punam Raut 106, Mithali Raj 69, Elysse Perry 2/37)

Australia: 227/2in 45.1 overs Meg Lanning 76, Ellyse Perry 60, Poonam Yadav 1/46)