Australia Women vs India Women Prediction: Imperious Aussies face familiar foes India

The ICC Women’s World Cup is in its final stages and there remain just three games. We have entered the Semi-Finals and the list of Semi-Finalists is the least surprising. This has been a wild ride and it took the last day of the Group Stage to determine what match-ups would occur. In this Semi-Final game, Australia is going to take on India to advance the game.

Australia comes into the game after defeating the South Africans by six wickets. After bowling first, unsurprisingly, Australians limited South Africa to 12. The Australians saw a big challenge from Tazmin Brits who began in an impressive fashion. South Africans were going well, accumulating 45 runs in 36 balls. They had stacked up 70 runs in 65 balls but after Marizzane Kapp fell, Tazmin fell early too. Then Chloe Tryon fell early too. From 70 for 1, the South Africans made just 126 runs, losing six wickets, and putting up just 56 runs in 55 deliveries.

Batting-wise, this was the worst start in the tournament, losing three wickets for just 40 runs in seven overs. But this didn’t feel to deter the ever-glowing Australian depth as stalwart Tahlia McGrath took matters to her hand, blazing against seamers and spinners alike. She made 57 runs in 33 balls, racking up 10 fours in that innings. Ashleigh Garnder was a fantastic stabilizing force, making 28 runs in 29 balls. Australians finished the job with 21 balls to go.

India enters the game after earning a five runs win against Ireland. India had raggedy innings apart from Smriti Mandhana, who made 87 runs in 56 balls and hit multiple sixes at the tail-end of the innings, also benefiting from the shoddy fielding display from the Irish squad. Jemimah Rodrigues also played crucial and what proved to be a decisive hand, as she made 19 runs in 12 balls. Shafali Varma and Harmanpreet Kaur looked rusty again while the lower order remains a matter of concern.

As has been the case with Renuka Singh, she began things with fantastic bowling. Amy Hunter fell to a run-out whereas Orla Pendergast was yet another top-order victim to the swing of Renuka. However, things were looking rather ghastly for India when Gaby Lewis got in the groove, hitting some of the loveliest shots we have seen all tournament long. Laura Delany was playing a stabilizing role but just as they were threatening the target, rain arrived and unfortunately, the team fell short. To be honest, India escaped by a whisker here.

• Expected Leading Run-Scorers: Beth Mooney(26+ Runs), Meg Lanning(24+ Runs), Harmanpreet Kaur(23+ Runs), Smriti Mandhana(22+ Runs);
• Expected Leading Wicket-Takers: Ashleigh Gardner(1+ Wicket), Renuka Singh(1+ Wicket)

India hasn’t played convincing cricket by any stretch of the imagination, their prime issues are a lack of quick start and then a highly fragile lower-middle order. Harmanpreet’s lack of form has been a huge concern but her track record against the Aussie bowling attack means she can pull something special off the hat. For Australia, there are no apparent concerns, they have the deepest team in the history of women’s cricket, and they have as many match-winners as the rest of the teams have combined. Therefore, they will have a big edge over any team that they are facing. Again, it is just too difficult to bet against Australia and I’d pick them like most.