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India End AustraliaJemimah Rodrigues defended her title against South Africa by scoring an unbeaten 127 to seal a sensational five-wicket win in the second semi-final and book her place in the Women’s World Cup final against South Africa.
Batting first, Australia scored 338 runs with the help of opener Phoebe Litchfield (119) giving them a great start. elise perry And Ashley Gardner scored a half-century at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
When the teams returned, Rodrigues played a brilliant innings, which included 14 fours, to help India achieve the biggest successful chase in Women’s ODI history with nine balls to spare. The result means a new ODI world champion team will emerge on Sunday.
“It absolutely feels like a dream and it hasn’t sunk in yet,” player of the match Rodrigues, who was in tears after his win, said after starting India’s nervy win.
Seven-time champions Australia had chased a record target of 661 runs against India in the league stage of the tournament and after being put into bat in the rematch, they posted another big score against the same opponent.
Australia captain Alyssa Healy got an early reprieve when her Indian counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur dropped a catch at mid-off but the batsman could not take advantage of it and pulled the ball onto her stumps for five runs.
Lichfield scored a century from 77 balls during a 155-run partnership with Perry, taking Australia to 159–1 at the halfway stage of their innings.
Litchfield were on 102 when India’s wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh dropped the catch and the batsman added insult to injury by hitting two consecutive sixes off spinner Deepti Sharma.
Her 93-ball innings, which included three sixes and 17 fours, ended when she attempted a cheeky scoop shot against Amanjot Kaur and lost her middle stump.
India claimed early wickets to make the break but Gardner (63) took Australia past 300 before they were all out with a ball remaining in their innings.
Shafali Verma (10), who replaced India’s injured out-of-form opener Pratika Raval, failed to impress on her return, but her target suffered a blow when Smriti Mandhana, their leading scorer in the tournament, was out after scoring 24 runs.
A 167-run partnership between Rodrigues and Harmanpreet (89) got India back in the chase.
Annabel Sutherland denied Harmanpreet a century, but when the batsman was on 82 and then 106, Rodrigues’ wicket fell, which proved costly in the end.
“We didn’t bat well, didn’t bowl well, missed chances in the field,” Healy lamented.
“We can take some of that, but we will ultimately get outmatched in the end.”
reuters