India beats Australia in women’s World Cup cricket

Australia’s reign as world champions is at an end after India pulled off the greatest run chase ever witnessed in the women’s game to dethrone Alyssa Healy’s unbeaten powerhouses.

Not even a glorious hundred from Phoebe Litchfield and more spectacular hitting from Ash Gardner was enough as Australia’s World Cup semi-final woes resurfaced, with India achieving an incredible five-wicket victory in Navi Mumbai, thanks to Jemimah Rodrigues’ innings of a lifetime.

Healy was left to reflect on a potentially era-ending defeat, with her side now dethroned as both T20 and ODI champs. She admitted they had probably let themselves down at crucial moments.

“We probably didn’t finish off with the bat, didn’t bowl that great and dropped all our chances in the field,” admitted the skipper, who spilled one golden chance off Rodrigues herself.

“We created opportunities. We just weren’t able to capitalise. And, you know, I’m at fault for that as well, and I think that’s something that Australia really prides themselves on.

“We kind of let ourselves down in that regard today. So that’s probably why it’s disappointing.”

Rodrigues, the bubbly India heroine who has struggled in recent months, scored 127 not out from 134 balls to guide the home side to the most unlikely of triumphs on Thursday, as India made 5-341 to surpass Australia’s 338 all out, which had featured a superb 119 from Litchfield.

But the breakthrough knock of Australia’s young gun, aided by Ellyse Perry’s 77 from 88 balls and, later, cemented by Gardner’s sparking 63 off 45, still proved insufficient as India surpassed the world record chase that the favourites had pulled off against them just 18 days earlier.

Having been beaten in the 2017 semi-final by India and having lost last year’s last-four clash against South Africa in the T20 World Cup, defeat at the last-four stage felt familiar for Healy but no less crushing for her side, which had won all six previous matches they’d played in this edition so impressively.

But now, the team which has dominated women’s cricket on the global stage for so long doesn’t have a world title to its name, and it’s India and South Africa who will battle for the title at the same DY Patil Stadium on Sunday.

With Healy, back from injury, opting to bat on a rain-spattered afternoon, the captain struggled for her five off 15 balls, but Litchfield really came of age with her first World Cup hundred, the fastest ever in the knockout stages of a Women’s World Cup off just 77 balls.

She shared a 155-run stand with Perry that took Australia to 1-159 at halfway, dreaming of a bigger total than they ended up with.

Litchfield’s 93-ball knock, which included three sixes and 17 fours, eventually ended when she tried to play a too-ambitious scoop against Amanjot Kaur and lost her middle stump.

India claimed quick wickets to apply the brake but Gardner’s 41-ball half-century took Australia past the 300.

After Australia got rid of Shafali Verma (10) and Smriti Mandhana, India’s leading scorer, for 24, a 167-run stand between Rodrigues, who ended up with 14 boundaries off 134 balls, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (89) put India in control.

Annabel Sutherland (2-69) denied Harmanpreet a century, but when Rodrigues was spilled by Healy off Alana King when on 82 and, again, by Tahlia McGrath off Sutherland on 106 -- those straightforward misses were to prove costly.

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