ICC T20 World Cup 2023: India’s Australian Jinx Continues, As Ashleigh Gardner Leads Australia To The Final

While the qualifiers have now taken the stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2023, India continue to suffer the Australian jinx, losing their semi-final. Indeed, a tough fight between the two teams, as they both tussle for the final.

A roller-coaster of emotions followed the game, as the two teams set their feet at the Newlands Cricket Ground for the semifinals. The Australian team won the toss and elected to bat first. Setting a decent target, the team was able to defeat the Indian team.

Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney opened as usual. The two set the required foundation for the team and led the team to a well-deserved start. Healy played a quick 25 runs and lost her wicket as Richa Ghosh stumped her on Radha Yadav’s delivery.

Mooney and Meg Lanning, both held ground and contributed the major runs for the team. The two played an impressive game leading the team to a safe total. Mooney scored 54 runs, whereas Lanning contributed 49 runs.

Gardner then backed the batting lineup and scored a total of 31 runs to lead the team to a total of 172 runs. Gardner scored quick runs which gave the team some extra runs. A pretty decent bowling performance from the Indian team. Shikha Pandey secured 2 wickets whereas Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma secured 1 each.

India needed 173 runs to secure the semis and make it to the finals. But a slow start as the openers went back securing poor scores. Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and Shikha Pandey all lost their early wickets.

The game was then shouldered by Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur. The two played a responsible game and led the team closer to the target. At this point, India needed just 39 runs off 30 deliveries.

Superb presence of mind from Ashleigh Gardner led to Kaur’s wicket. Jess Jonassen, Darcie Brown and Gardner further secured the last few wickets and turned the game in Australia’s favour. What a turn of events. A roller coaster of emotions experienced by the viewers. India lost by a tight margin of 5 runs.

India fell victim to their Australian Jinx for the fourth time in a row. The team hasn’t been able to win a semifinal against Australia for the fourth consecutive time. A sad game for India, having reached so close to the target and yet lost their game.

Australia has made it successfully to the finals of the T20 World Cup. The second finalist will be decided tomorrow among England and South Africa.

ICC T20 World Cup 2023: Australia vs India, Semi-Final 1 Brief Score

Australia 172/4 (Beth Mooney 54 (37), Meg Lanning 49 (34), Shikha Pandey 2/32)won against India 167/8 (Harmanpreet Kaur 52(34), Jemimah Rodrigues 43 (24), Darcie Brown 2/18, Ashleigh Gardner 2/37) by 5 runs.

Get the latest news here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more updates.