India vs Australia Highlights, Women's T20 World Cup 2024: Harmanpreet's fifty in vain as Australia defeat India

India vs Australia LIVE, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, Result: Harmanpreet Kaur’s hard-fought half-century went in vain as India suffered a nine-run loss at the hands of defending champions Australia in Sharjah on Sunday to face the prospect of an early exit from the Women’s T20 World Cup.

Harmanpreet remained unbeaten on 54 off 47 balls, bringing up her second consecutive half-century that kept India’s hopes in their chase of the 152-run target alive till the final over. Australia, however, kept their calm despite the Harmanpreet-inspired fightback to collect a narrow victory and storm into the semi-finals with four wins in as many outings.

Australia had earlier posted 151/8 after opting to bat at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, with Grace Harris top-scoring for the Southern Stars with a knock of 40 off 41 balls. Renuka Singh (2/24) and Deepti Sharma (2/28) were the pick of the Indian bowlers.

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India vs Australia LIVE, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, TOSS: Australia won the toss and stand-in skipper Tahlia McGrath opted to bat in Sunday’s blockbuster clash against 2020 runners-up India in Sharjah.

Regular skipper Alyssa Healy was doubtful for Australia’s final Group A clash after retiring hurt in her team’s nine-wicket thrashing of Pakistan, and was ultimately ruled out with all-rounder McGrath taking her place.

Grace Harris and Darcie Brown were drafted into the defending champions’ XI for Sunday’s clash, with the former taking Healy’s place at the top of the order.

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India, meanwhile, brought in seamer Pooja Vastrakar and Radha Yadav into the XI, with Sajeevan Sajana and Asha Sobhana missing outt.

Australia are virtually through to the semi-finals that will take place later this week thanks to their superb Net Run Rate (+2.786) that is currently the best among all teams.

India, on the other hand, not only need a victory against the six-time T20 world champions, they will also be dependent on the result of the New Zealand vs Pakistan clash on Monday in order to progress to the next round.

Teams:

Australia: Beth Mooney(w), Grace Harris, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath(c), Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Sophie Molineux, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown

India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Thakur Singh