India Out of T20 World Cup After Loss to Australia

Lords. Indian women's cricket team has been out of the T-20 World Cup. India's World Cup journey has ended after Australia defeated India by 6 wickets in a must-win game played in Lords. Although India presented a target of 171 runs for victory, a century partnership between Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner changed the course of the game. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur's excellent innings of 56 runs off 27 balls was not enough to lead the team to victory. With this defeat, India finished third in Group 'A' and was eliminated from the competition. Australia and South Africa have entered the semi-finals from this group. India was given an aggressive start by openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana after winning the toss and choosing to bat first. These two shared a 66-run partnership for the first wicket. Shafali scored 34 runs off 26 balls, while Smriti contributed 38 runs off 37 balls. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur batted explosively for 56 runs off 27 balls, including 6 fours and 3 sixes. She added 64 runs for the third wicket with Jemimah Rodrigues (34 runs), putting India in a strong position. In the last over, Harmanpreet hit three consecutive sixes off Sophie Molineux's ball, taking India's score to 170. Australia's start was not good in chasing the target of 171 runs. Renuka Singh gave India the first success by getting Georgia Ware out leg before wicket on the second ball. Then, after Shreyanka Patil got Phoebe Litchfield and Deepti Sharma got Beth Mooney out, Australia was in a precarious position having lost 3 wickets for 68 runs. At that time, India seemed to be in a very strong position in the game. After losing three wickets, Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner started putting pressure on the Indian bowlers. These two shared a game-winning partnership of 100 runs in just 57 balls for the fourth wicket. Perry scored 56 runs off 38 balls, while Gardner remained unbeaten on 53 runs off 29 balls. Australia scored 172 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 19 overs and took the game in their favor. In the first match played on Sunday, South Africa had already added 8 points by defeating Bangladesh. In such a situation, India was under pressure to win this match at any cost to reach the final four. But with the defeat, India remained limited to third place in Group 'A' with 6 points from 5 matches. Australia secured 10 points and South Africa secured 8 points to book their semi-final tickets.