Indian Women’s Cricket team remained undefeated in the group stage after beating Australia by 48 runs in the Women’s T20 World Cup at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur starred with the bat as the Indians racked up 167-8 batting first. Later they restricted Australia to 119-9 as wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy suffered concussion and could not bat.
Indian skipper Kaur won the toss and elected to bat first. Opener Mandhana smashed her career-best 83 with 9 fours and 3 sixes in 55balls. Kaur made a responsible 27-ball 43 runs to guide India to 167. The Indian spinners then got into the act with Anuja Patil taking three wickets and Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma taking 2 wicket each.
For her strokeful innings, Mandhana was awarded as the Player of the Match. Reflecting on her innings, she said, “Quite relieved as I was getting starts but not converting them. Wanted to go out there and score big runs. Glad that I could do it today.”
With this win, India topped Group B after four straight wins. They will face either England or defending champion West Indies in the semi-finals.
