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New Delhi. The Indian team’s campaign in the Women’s T20 World Cup ended even before the semi-finals. In an important match played at the historic Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, six-time champion Australia defeated India by six wickets and ended its hopes of reaching the last four. Even the brilliant half-century inning of captain Harmanpreet Kaur could not lead the team to victory and the Indian team was out of the tournament after losing to Australia in the T20 World Cup for the second consecutive time.

Batting first, the Indian team made a strong score of 170 runs for four wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Shefali Verma and Smriti Mandhana gave the team an aggressive start. Shefali scored 34 runs in 26 balls while Smriti played a useful inning of 38 runs in 37 balls. After this, captain Harmanpreet Kaur batted fast and scored 56 runs in just 27 balls and took the team to a challenging score.

Sophie Molineux was most successful in bowling for Australia. He took two wickets for 46 runs in four overs and tried to put pressure on the Indian batsmen. However, Indian batsmen set a target of 171 runs for Australia by adding runs rapidly in the last overs.

The Australian team, which came to chase the target, was challenged by the Indian bowlers in the initial phase and also controlled the run rate for some time. At one point the required run rate seemed to be steadily increasing and the contest seemed completely balanced. But the Indian team was not successful in maintaining the pressure till the end. Australia took full advantage of poor bowling and fielding mistakes on some important occasions.

Ellis Perry and Ash Gardner played important roles in Australia’s victory. Ellyse Perry played a responsible inning of 56 runs in 38 balls while Ash Gardner completely changed the course of the match by scoring 53 runs in just 29 balls. Phoebe Lichfield also helped the team reach the target by making a useful contribution of 24 runs. Thanks to these innings, Australia achieved the target by losing four wickets and registered a spectacular victory.

This defeat was also disappointing for the Indian women’s team because Australia had also ended India’s journey in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup. This time too the same story was repeated in the big match. The Indian team performed well in batting but the mistakes made at crucial moments in bowling and fielding proved costly. Now Team India will have to learn from this defeat and focus on preparing for future big tournaments so that it can perform better on the upcoming global platforms.