Australia face India in ‘huge’ T20 World Cup semi-final

Australia face India in ‘huge’ T20 World Cup semi-final

The solely staff Australia have misplaced to since March 2021 now stand of their means of one other T20 World Cup closing.

Defending champions Australia head into the semi-final at Newlands on Thursday, as agency favourites, wielding a 3-2 edge over India in T20 World Cup encounters.

Five-time winners in seven earlier iterations of the 20-over showpiece, Australia are but to drop a recreation on the eighth version in South Africa.

But in keeping with batter Beth Mooney, latest precedents of developing quick towards India, runners-up of the 2020 T20 World Cup, leaves no room for complacency.

“I’m expecting it to be a huge contest, obviously,” Mooney stated in Cape Town on Tuesday.

“They have pushed us significantly in the last few years and got a bunch of match-winners in their line-up as well. So, we’re not expecting an easy game by any means.

“As we all know, (in) semi-finals everybody’s ranging from scratch and nobody’s acquired any factors main into that first semi, so now we will be on our recreation from ball one.”

En route to the knockouts, Australia, table-toppers in Group 1, routed oppositions by margins as big as 97 runs (New Zealand), eight wickets (Bangladesh), 10 wickets (Sri Lanka) and six wickets (South Africa).

In conditions that have aided spinners and rewarded quicks for astute reading of them, Meg Lanning’s side made good on their tournament war cry, “adaptability”, throughout the group stages.

Georgia Wareham, Darcie Brown, Grace Harris stood out with the ball. Allrounders Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry and Tahlia McGrath left their imprint, too.

Vice-captain Alyssa Healy, who is set to slot back into the XI having sat out their last group game on Saturday with a left quad complaint, has led the charge with the bat.

India, for their part, have personnel who are a force to reckon with in their own right, underscored Mooney.

“They play a number of spinners. So, I’m positive we’ll see a number of the batters within the prime order going through a big quantity of spin,” Mooney stated.

“And we have seen with Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana on the prime of the order; they go fairly arduous, and Richa Ghosh within the center … We definitely know the model of play they’ve come at us with up to now.

“They know ours pretty well, too, so it won’t be any surprises, I don’t think, come Thursday afternoon.”

A rematch of the 2005 ODI World Cup closing, the 2020 T20 World Cup title conflict and the 2022 Commonwealth Games closing, this fixture marks the primary time for the reason that 2017 ODI decider that Australia have taken on India in a serious occasion’s semi-final.

The two sides final met in a five-T20I collection performed throughout Navi Mumbai and Mumbai in December.

Though Australia gained the competition 4-1, India’s Super-Over victory within the second match, earlier than a 47,000-strong crowd, confirmed they will beat the world-beaters on their evening.

One of the standout performers in that recreation, swing bowler Renuka Singh, is India’s main wicket-taker at this event.

Mooney, the main run-scorer on that tour, believes whatever the circumstances at Newlands, which is prone to be rain-free on Thursday, Australia have each purpose to be cautious of her.

“We played against her back in the series in India in December and she’s a handy bowler for them up front,” Mooney stated.

“She’s certainly one we’ll have a look at as a batting unit as to how we can nullify her threat because I think she has been pretty incredible this T20 World Cup.”

Source: www.perthnow.com.au