India will face England in the second semifinals on Friday after the West Indies defeated 2009 champions by four wickets in their last group match of the ICC Women’s World T20 at Providence (Guyana). India have been invincible so far in the tournament, winning all their three games in the group stage. The inform team will also have revenge on its mind, having lost to England in the 50-over World Cup final last year.
En route to the semifinals, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side also hammered three-time former champions Australia in its last pool match. Defending champions West Indies, on the other hand, topped group A with eight points after beating England in the last-over thriller to set up a clash with Australia in the first semifinals in Antigua on November 22.
In the last group A match, the West Indies dished out a disciplined performance as they first restricted England to 115-8 and then overhauled the target with three balls to spare, riding on Deandra Dottin’s 52-ball 48. In the semifinals West Indies will meet Australia while India will meet England. (Both on Friday).
India top Group B
Opener Smriti Mandhana smashed a career-best 83 to power India to a competitive 167 for 8 before spinners strangled Australia to power India to a 48-run win in a group B match on Saturday. Mandhana blasted 9 fours and 3 sixes in her 55-ball 83-run innings to anchor the Indian innings. She also became the second fastest in India to compete 1,000 runs in T20 internationals after Mithali Raj during her innings.
Spinners Anuja Patil, Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadav didn’t allow Australian batswomen to accelerate and were eventually bowled them out for 119. Earlier, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur too produced a strokeful 27-ball 43 studded with three sixes and as many fours to share a 68-run partnership for the third wicket with Mandhana.
Mandhana gave India a good start after her fellow opening batsman Taniya Bhatia (2) was dismissed in the second over. Mandhana then stepped up and picked up a boundary each in the next two overs to keep the score ticking. She blasted a four and a six off Sophie Molineux in the 5th over before repeating the treatment to Megan Schutt in the next over to accumulate big runs.
Mithali, spinners star
In an earlier group match, India produced an allround performance to beat Ireland by 52 runs. India scored 145 for six in the stipulated 20 overs and then restricted Ireland to 93 for eight. India produced a slow batting performance managing only 145 for 6 against Ireland, riding on a painstaking half-century from former skipper Mithali Raj. Promoted to open the batting, veteran Mithali (51 off 56 balls) added 67 runs in 10 overs with Smriti Mandhana (33) but the innings never gained required momentum on a track that remained a bit damp due to overnight showers. Evan as wickets fell at one end, Mithali couldn’t shift gears at the other end. She was finally out in the 19th over, deceived by a slower delivery from Garth but India’s chances of putting up a substantial total had gone up in smoke by then. Though Mithali failed to accelerate, her half-century still provided India a respectable total to defend the inexperienced Ireland batting.
