Desk Report:
Hosts India and South Africa will face each other in the Women’s World Cup final in Mumbai on Sunday. With this it has been decided that women’s cricket will get a new champion. Outside Australia, England and New Zealand have won the title. This time a new champion will emerge ahead of him. India defeated Alyssa Healy’s team last Thursday night to reach the Women’s World Cup final. Harmanpreet Kaur’s team won the second semi-final by 5 wickets. In response to Phoebe Litchfield’s brilliant century, Jemimah Rodrigues played a brilliant inning of 127 not out. India achieved the target of 339 runs given by Australia with 9 balls remaining. In the first match of both the teams this season, Australia won by chasing 330 runs. This was the biggest run chase win not only in the World Cup but also in Women’s ODI. India made this record in less than three weeks. They defeated women’s cricket powerhouse Australia, who are seven-time champions, including last season. India’s top order batsman Jemimah had a big contribution in this. He played a career best inning of 127 runs in 134 balls with the help of 14 fours. His batting took India to the final for the third time. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first, but lost captain Alyssa Healy early on at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. However, Litchfield and Elise Perry did not let this affect the team. Both the top order batsmen made a partnership of 155 runs in 133 balls for the second wicket. On the way to this partnership, Lichfield set the record for the youngest cricketer (22 years and 195 days) to score a century in a Women’s World Cup knockout match. She is the second youngest Australian batsman to score a century in the history of the competition.
He broke this partnership by giving a return catch to Amanjot Kaur. Litchfield scored 119 runs in 93 balls with the help of three sixes and 17 fours. Beth Mooney made a partnership of 40 runs in 40 balls with Perry. After returning, Perry was also out after scoring 24 runs in 22 balls. This top-order batsman scored 77 runs in 88 balls with the help of two sixes and six fours. Australia’s innings continued to progress around Ashley Gardner. He created a storm at one end. Before being run out, he hit four sixes and one four in 45 balls. Apart from Gardner, Tahlia McGrath and Kim Garth were run out. Australia lost its last 4 wickets for just 7 runs. Shri Charini was India’s most successful bowler with 2 wickets for 49 runs. Deepti Sharma took 2 wickets for 73 runs. While chasing a big target, India lost the wicket of Shafali Verma early. Despite the storm signal, Smriti Mandhana returned after scoring 24 runs in 24 balls. Jemimah and Harmanpreet Kaur gave India a comeback after losing 2 wickets in the powerplay. India bounced back with a partnership of 167 runs in 156 balls. Harmanpreet stopped Gardner by catching the ball of Annabelle Sutherland. The Indian captain scored 89 runs in 88 balls with the help of two sixes and 10 fours. Deepti Sharma broke her 38-run partnership with Jemima in 34 balls. Jemima, who remained at one end, touched the figure of three in 115 balls. This was his third century in ODIs, his first against Australia. India needed 34 runs in the last 5 overs, while 6 wickets were in hand. Richa Ghosh returned after playing a short but effective inning of 26 runs in 16 balls and the remaining runs were scored by Jemima along with Amanjot. Amanjot, who finished the match on the boundary, scored 11 runs in 8 balls with the help of two fours.
Despite excellent ground fielding, Australia had to pay the price by dropping catches. Alyssa Healy took an easy catch of Jemima at 82 runs and Tahlia McGrath took another easy catch at 104 runs. That bat of Jemimah rang the farewell bell for the favorite players. After winning 15 consecutive matches in the World Cup, Australia had to taste defeat. The last time the undefeated champions lost to India was in the semi-finals of the 2017 tournament.
