Kolkata: Harmanpreet Kaur’s colossal effort coupled by the brilliance of the bowlers helped India stun the defending champions Australia by 36 runs in the second semi-final to set up the final clash against hosts England in the Women’s World Cup.
Coming into this match, Australia were the favourites to make it to the final once again as they had beaten India once in the group stages and have looked invincible so far in the competition. But a determined India, coming on the back of the 186-beating they delivered to New Zealand put on a thoroughly clinical performance in the rain-truncated contest.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who had a mostly quiet World Cup so far by her standards, rose to the occasion to play a magnificent innings that is going to be remembered by cricket lovers all over the world for a long time.
An unbeaten knock that was studded with 20 fours and seven sixes, Kaur’s powerful 171* of just 115 balls helped the Indians post on a formidable 281/4 in the game that was reduced to 42-overs a side due to rain.
Kaur’s supreme effort reminds us of that scintillating 175* from the bat of Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe in the Prudential World Cup of 1983 which India eventually won. There are quite a lot of similarities between these two innings- no other batter in the team crossed 50 and also, both Kapil and Kaur are all-rounders to have played these stellar knocks.
The right-hander from Punjab was at her devastating best as she notched up the highest score by an Indian in the Women’s World Cup, surpassing her skipper Mithali Raj’s 109, which she had scored in the last game against New Zealand. This is also the fifth highest score by a batswoman in Women’s ODI cricket.
With 282 to win in 42 overs, the Australians didn’t get the best of starts after Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami and Deepti Sharma removed Beth Mooney (1), Nicole Bolton (14), and skipper Meg Lanning (0) respectively with just 21 runs on the board. Elyse Villani (75) and Ellyse Perry (38) then responded with a 105-run stand.
But once the partnership ended, the Indian bowlers regularly chipped away at the wickets to reduce the defending champions to 169/9 at one stage before Alex Blackwell (90) threatened to deny India a victory. But the inevitable wasn’t delayed for long as Deepti Sharma bowled the aggressive batswoman to ensure that they face England in the final.
With this win, this is only the second time the Indians have reached the final of the Women’s World Cup, after they had achieved this feat in 2005 where they were defeated by the Australians.
But Mithali Raj and her girls wouldn’t let this huge opportunity to make history go away easily and would look forward to giving it all against England at Lord’s in the final match.
Brief scores: India Women 281/4 in 42 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 171*, Mithali Raj 36; Elyse Villani 1/19) beat Australia Women 245 all out in 40.1 overs (Alex Blackwell 90, Elyse Villani 75, Deepti Sharma 3/59) by 36 runs.