Australia Knock India Out of the Race

On a hot day at Lord’s in front of a sell-out crowd, a feast of runs from both teams, Australia defeated India, securing their place in the finals while simultaneously knocking India out of the race.

The crowd of 27,000 packed Lord’s from top to bottom. A sea of blue India supporter shirts dominated the space, but there were a few yellow and green Aussie shirts. Significantly there were some other yellow and green shirts, those of supporters of South Africa, for the result of this match would determine whether or no the Proteas would make the finals. Add the yellow and green of both Aussie and Proteas supporters and… it’s still a sea of blue.

Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss for India and elected to bat. The crowd were happy with that. Most of them had come to see the likes of Harman and Smriti Mandhana bat. They’d be particularly keen to see Jemimah Rodrigues reprise her innings from the semi final of the ODI World Cup where she singled handedly knocked out the Aussies.

It was a subdued innings from Smriti Mandhana by her standards. None of those elegant offside stokes, but plenty of those pull shots she has brought into her game. Close off one side, she opens the other. She and Shafali Verma (34) put on a 66 run opening stand but there was some concern about the pace of the innings. This Lord’s wicket has plenty of runs and India would need a mountain of them to nullify the Aussies.

Jemimah Rodrigues chipped in with a breezy 38 runs but it was considered too slow. With 6 balls remaining, this batter who was settled in was retired to make way for Richa Ghosh to finishing fireworks. Instead, it was the skipper who provided those in a vintage Harmanpreet innings. Oh she can save her best for the Aussies!

The total of 170/4 did feel a little short, by 10-15 runs. If India’s batters only lost four wickets on this pitch, what would the Aussies do? Not much if you’re Georgia Voll, out for 4 in the first over. Early points for India.

Phoebe Litchfield () and Beth Mooney () kep things moving, but were both gone by the 10th over when Australia was 68/3, roughly the same score India was at the same time, but with two more wickets down.

Enter Ellyse Perry (56) and Ash Gardner (53*) who put on a T20 batting clinic. It was a spectacular partnership that even has the sea of blue applauding the masterclass they were witnessing.

Perry was out needlessly at the end while Gardner continued on and hit the winning runs, Australia victors by 6 wickets. The win meant they went through the Pool matches undefeated and finished atop the group.

The crowd was treated to 342 runs on a day of glorious London sunshine. Most would have gone home disappointed with the result but exalted by the quality of cricket these teams bring whenever they play each other.

Ellyse Perry was named Player of the Match – her third medal for the tournament.

Scores

India 170/4 (Harmanpreet Kaur 56, Smriti Mandhana 38, Sophie Molineux 2-46) lost to
Australia 172/4 (Ellyse Perry 56, Ash Gardner 53*, Shree Charani 2-32) by 6 wickets

POTM: Ellyse Perry