AUSTRALIA BEAT INDIA BY 6 WICKETS TO QUALIFY FOR SEMIS

(The Quiver): Mithali Raj led Team India gave a very tough fight to the Australian Women’s Cricket team in the fifth match of their ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 campaign at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. However, even after scoring 277, they were unable to defend it as Meg Lanning played a captain’s knock, scoring a brilliant 97 off 107 balls to take her team to a straight fifth win and thereby becoming the first team to qualify for the Semi-Finals in this World Cup. 

Meg Lanning, the Australian captain has been named the Player of the Match for her brilliant performance with the bat. Although she missed out on what would have been a fantastic century, her innings of 97 off 107 balls was however the main reason that Australia chased down the historic 278, the highest ever total in the history of the Women’s Cricket World Cup.

Australia were up to the task from the very start of their chase as the opening pair of Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes added 121 before it was broken by Sneh Rana. India picked two back to back wickets to come back in the game. But then again a 103 run stand between Lanning and Ellyse Perry put Australia right in front.There was a rain break and after that India bowl tight overs and removed Perry and then Lanning to get the game to the last over with 8 runs needed from it. Jhulan Goswami was given the ball, but Beth Mooney sealed the game in the first three balls itself, scoring a four, a double and another four.

Earlier in the day, after being put to bat first, the Indian team scored 277/7. It was the 130 run partnership between captain Mithali Raj (68) and Yastika Bhatia (59) that got the Indian team going. But after losing both Yastika and Mithali, India were once again struggling at 213-6 before Harmanpreet Kaur (57) and Pooja Vastrakar (34) added crucial 64 off just 47 balls to take India to 277. For Australia, Darcie Brown took three wickets and finished with figures of 3/30 in her 8 overs.