Navi Mumbai: It was a night like never before, a night when the Indian women’s cricket team lived up to the high expectations in front of a capacity home crowd to storm into the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup.
Not only did the Indian eves dethrone the mighty Australia, they did so by chasing down a record target – that, too, under the pressure cooker situation of a World Cup semifinal after Australia amassed a massive 338 at D Y Patil Stadium here on Thursday.
The magnitude of the achievement can be gauged from the dominance near-invincible Australia has shown in the last few years – unbeaten in World Cup since 2018, unbeaten in this tournament till the semis and last 15 WODIs.
On Sunday, India will face South Africa in the title decider at the same venue in Navi Mumbai.
Little Jemimah Rodrigues, who was dropped earlier in the tournament for underperforming, redeemed herself with a dream knock – an unbeaten 127 off 134 balls, with 14 fours.
Playing in her maiden World Cup, the 25-year-old Jemimah came in at No. 3 after Shafali Varma fell for 10. Run machine Smriti Mandhana (24) was a touch unfortunate to be caught behind down the legside, and India were up against it at 59/2.
Harmanpreet Kaur, the skipper, joined Jemimah and the two showed remarkable composure and game sense to take on the feisty Australians.
The Aussies didn’t help their cause by missing four chances, including three sitters, and Jemimah and Harmanpreet were determined to capitalise on the slices of luck.
When Harmanpreet (89 off 88 balls, 10×4, 2×6) fell to a fine catch, India were 226/3 – still 113 runs away in less than 15 overs. Jemimah stayed firm, took advantage of the reprieves and carried the team over the line, helped by useful contributions from Deepti Sharma (24 off 17), Richa Ghosh (26 off 16) and Amanjyot Kaur (15* off 8).
It was a great relief for India, who earlier lost three straight matches in the league stage, including two from winning positions.
BRIEF SCORES
Australia 338 all out in 49.5 overs (Phoebe Litchfield 119, Ellyse Perry 77, Ashleigh Gardner 63; Shree Charani 2/49, Deepti Sharma 2/73).
India 341/5 in 48.3 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 127*, Harmanpreet Kaur 89; Kim Garth 2/46, Annabel Sutherland 2/69).
Result: India won by 5 wickets.
Final: India vs South Africa on Nov 2 (Navi Mumbai).
