Player of the Match
Player of the Match
1890dThe Report by Shashank Kishore

Spinners, Lanning power Australia into semi-final

Mithali Raj's world record and Punam Raut's maiden World Cup century were mere footnotes on a day when Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Australia's spinners stamped their authority to seal a semi-final berth

Match Centre

Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Karthik Krishnaswamy

5.00pm: That's it, then. Australia, quite deservedly, are through to the semis. India have a whole lot to do to join them there. Two rest days coming up, and these players (and our ball-by-ball commentators) have richly deserved them. Join us again on the 15th, when we'll have all of four matches to bring you. Until then, goodbye!

Mithali Raj: "It was a decent total after losing our first wicket in the first couple of overs. We should have got more runs in the middle overs, but it was still a competitive total. But the bowlers didn't look penetrative, it was a slow wicket. I think that since I've had a long career, [the milestone] is part of it. It's very important for me to get runs for my country from my bat. I can say I'm happy even though I'm not happy in terms of the result or the way I scored them today. Even for New Zealand, probably, it will be a do-or-die match. If we look forward to qualifying, we really need to upgrade our quality of cricket.

Lanning, again: "We realised the wicket was a little slower than what we've played on before. We decided to take on the bowling, and we did that pretty well today. We backed the side we played against England. We do have options on the sidelines if we want to go that way. A number of the captains said coming in there would be no easy games. It's nice that we are there [in the semi-finals]. We've come into this World Cup looking to win it, just like every other team. There's been some very good cricket played, and every game from here on is going to be high-quality."

Christy Mathew: "Perry does have the highest average without a hundred when you consider a cut-off of at least a 1000 runs." -- Absolutely.

Meg Lanning is the Player of the Match. "We do enjoy batting together. We were trying to take it to the bowlers. The right shoulder injury is making sure I play really straight [with a lot of top hand], but it isn't affecting my batting too much. We need to go out there and win against South Africa, another tough opposition."

4.47pm Was there any doubt? If there was, an unbroken third-wicket stand of 124 between Lanning and Perry, two of the best cricketers in the world, has blown it away. Australia are through to the semi-finals of the Women's World Cup, and are through with an utterly commanding performance. Their batting was dominant and dismissive, but they outclassed India with the ball - none of the freebies that their opposition routinely gave them - and in the field as well. Apart from a brief period immediately following Mooney's run-out, when Shikha Pandey and the spinners piled on the pressure on the new-to-the-crease Perry, Australia simply coasted, picking up a boundary roughly every other over.

India's semi-final chances are now under threat. They meet New Zealand on Saturday, in what looks likely to be a virtual quarterfinal. They'll need to do a lot better in that game - certainly with the ball and in the field, but also in terms of the intent they show with the bat.

45.1
4
Goswami to Perry, FOUR, full outside off and Perry finishes it in style. Drives firmly, with a bit of a bottom-hand whip, between the non-striker and mid-on

Goswami. Australia only need four now.

CoolSS: "Does Perry have the highest average for a batsman without a hundred?" -- Not quite, but she's pretty close to the top of the list.

END OF OVER:
45 | 5 Runs | AUS-W: 223/2 (4 runs required from 30 balls, RR: 4.95, RRR: 0.80)

  • Ellyse Perry56 (66b)
  • Meg Lanning76 (88b)
  • Poonam Yadav8-0-46-1
  • Ekta Bisht10-1-55-0
44.6
1
Poonam Yadav to Perry, 1 run, length ball on middle and leg, clipped to the right of midwicket
44.5
0
Poonam Yadav to Perry, no run, is that stumped? Australia are five runs away, and Perry, maybe looking to finish it in one hit, jumps out of her crease too early. Poonam sees her coming, bowls a shortish googly wide of off stump. Jabs at it, misses, and then spins around and tries to regain her crease with her right hand - bat is still in her left hand. The ball goes so slowly to the keeper that Perry makes it despite her unorthodox crease-returning method
44.4
4
Poonam Yadav to Perry, FOUR, a few inches short and at her pace, it's asking to be hit. Perry rocks back and pulls to the left of deep midwicket
44.3
0
Poonam Yadav to Perry, no run, length ball on middle stump, defended back to the bowler
44.2
0
Poonam Yadav to Perry, no run, well bowled. Slowed this up on middle stump, and Perry looks to flick against the turn. Not to the pitch and the leading edge rolls into the covers

AUS Women 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st62NE BoltonBL Mooney
2nd41MM LanningBL Mooney
3rd124EA PerryMM Lanning