A fantastic 97 from Australian captain Meg Lanning register a 6-wicket win against India in a crucial group stage game in Auckland. Australia, who were chasing 278, did it with three deliveries to spare as half centuries by Mithali Raj, Yastika Bhatia and Harmanpreet Kaur went in vain.
The result is India’s third defeat in five games. India, remember, had made the final in the previous edition of the ODI World Cup, and also finished runners-up in the T20 World Cup in 2020 in Australia. Meanwhile, this win takes Australia to the semi-final of the tournament.
Lanning led the controlled chase with 97 off 107 balls, laced with 13 boundaries in an innings where she collected and pierced gaps through point region for fun. But it was the opening partnership of 121 between Alyssa Healy (72) and Rachael Haynes (43) which set the tone for Australia's unbeaten run in the showpiece event.
Australia began by picking nine boundaries in power-play, six of which were hammered by Healy while three belonged to Haynes.
Healy took charge of the chase from the word go, hitting boundaries against pacers Jhulan Goswami and Meghna Singh effortlessly via drives, flick, late steer and pull.
Haynes, on the other hand, swept and sliced Rajeshwari Gayakwad for boundaries before signing off from power-play with a pull off Pooja Vastrakar.
Healy then reached her 14th ODI fifty in 49 balls. The desperation was such from India to get a breakthrough that they emptied their quota of DRS reviews within the first 17 overs of defending 277.
Healy swept Gayakwad twice for boundaries but in an attempt to reverse-sweep off Sneh Rana, the right-handed batter picked out short third man, falling for 72 as the 121-run opening partnership came to an end.
In the next over, Haynes departed at 43, giving a faint outer edge to keeper Richa Ghosh on a hook off Vastrakar. But Lanning kept the scoreboard ticking with her creamy drives and punches while placing the cuts elegantly through square region on the off-side.
Lanning looked assured in sweeping Rana and then punished a wayward Meghna with a slash past backward point followed by a pull over fine leg to reach her fifty in 56 balls. Ellyse Perry dug in her heels before getting her first boundary with a drive through mid-on off a full toss from Goswami.
The duo was sharing a stand of 102 off 120 balls when rain interrupted play, with Australia needing 53 runs in 54 balls.
Post resumption, Perry fell to Vastrakar as she smashed a full toss straight to cover. But Lanning continued to place her shots well by swivelling Vastrakar over backward square leg and then drove her square through backward point.
Lanning again brought out her favourite square drive against Goswami to enter the 90s.
But Lanning fell three short of her 15th ODI century, slicing straight to point off Meghna. With eight needed off the final over, Mooney elegantly lofted Goswami over mid-wicket for four and then took two runs via drive through deep cover, followed by a four down the ground to maintain their clean slate in the tournament.
Brief Scores: India 277/7 in 50 overs (Mithali Raj 68, Yastika Bhatia 59; Darcie Brown 3/30, Alana King 2/52) lost to Australia 280/4 in 49.3 overs (Meg Lanning 97, Alyssa Healy 72; Pooja Vastrakar 2/43, Sneh Rana 1/56) by six wickets.
(With IANS Inputs)
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