Australia 151 for 8 (Harris 40, McGrath 32, Perry 32, Renuka 2-24, Deepti 2-28) won bharat 142 for 9 (Harmanpreet 54*, Deepti 29, Sutherland 2-22, Molineux 2-32) in 9 runs
Bharat’s hopes of the T20 International Cup semi-finals were dashed after a nine-run loss to Australia in their final group match. Bharat have lost two of their four matches and will have to wait for the results of Unused Zealand vs Pakistan the following day to decide whether they will progress to the last 16. Any margin of victory for Unused Zealand will eliminate Bharat, but a victory for Pakistan will decide the online semi-finalists.
The prudent Wareham does not evaluate
Australia had made a slow start with 17 runs from their first 16 balls when Renuka struck with a delivery that deflected off Beth Mooney. Australia’s senior opener caught up with him and bowled a low expectation to Radha at backward point, where she lunged forward to speed up a good catch. Georgia Wareham was once powered by Refuse. 3, where she has often been used as a pinch hitter, and the first ball she faced hit the driveway as she forgot her move.
Renuka was joined by all of her teammates’ bachelors in calling attention to herself and referee Sue Redfern finally raised her finger as Wareham began to walk away. Harris asked Wareham if he wanted to check it, but he decided against it, only returning to the dressing room to find that ball tracking confirmed that the ball would move straight to clear the leg stump. a long way. Australia again contained Perry and stand-in captain McGrath was once in Refuse. 4, the place I needed to rebuild.
Heartbreaking acceleration from McGrath and Harris
Harris and McGrath took Australia to 37 for two in the powerplay and went into attacking form from the eighth over, when both took on Pooja Vastrakar. McGrath crashed it through the safe for 4 and then Harris lifted it over effective leg in over ten runs and took Australia’s fifty. Australia had been 65 for two in the middle of their innings and Harris-McGrath’s surge grew to 62 off 54 balls and Bharat was determined to separate them.
They reviewed an lbw charm against McGrath after a full delivery from Renuka with his leg missing. McGrath was next dropped on 31 through Harmanpreet off Radha in a safe. The Bharat captain had both hands towards the ball, but it broke through. Harris lost the nearest ball in the wind and Harmanpreet ran back to fight and speed up an overhand catch, but it was sloppy. It was a sort of third generation for Bharat when McGrath attacked Radha, abandoned her and Richa Ghosh left her stumped.
and the next drama
Harris was off 9 balls when she drove her WPL teammate Deepti to Smriti Mandhana at mid-cut and Bharat had her footing at the throat of the Australian central series when Ashleigh Gardner’s well-known edge found out Radha in safe. Australia, with the nearest 15 overs, had been 101 for five. Perry confirmed her intention when she took 13 runs off Shreyanka Patil’s third over.
Bharat thought they would take another impressive step forward when Deepti appealed lbw and then Phoebe Litchfield neglected an attempted opposite sweep. Redfern hit it on the ground and Litchfield was walking, but Perry invited her to check it out. The ball was bowled outside leg stump and although Litchfield changed his stance, third umpire Jacqueline Williams deemed Litchfield did so only after the ball was delivered and asked Redfern to change his decision not to go out. . Bharat first protested the verdict, but quickly calmed down. Litchfield had five in the generation, completing the innings unbeaten with 15 and losing six in the maximum ball.
Shafali crushes it up front but Bharat loses two in the powerplay.
Bharat’s intent was visible from the bat of Shafali Verma, who had to wait until the sixth ball he faced when he found the boundary with an impressive drive. She hit Gardner over square leg for Bharat’s first four, then sent Megan Schutt over her head for four more and of course went all the way, hitting Schutt for long on. Shafali had quickly raced to twenty off 12 balls but fell to Gardner for the fifth class in T20Is, looking for the sunny Annabel Sutherland in the long run.
Australia braked
Australia received even more breakthrough when Rodrigues drove Schutt straight to Gardner at deep midwicket in the seventh over. He allowed them to use the squeeze. Deepti swept four in the eighth over, but then there were limitations for three overs, by the end of which Australia had shown their place in the semi-finals.
Harmanpreet pushed Darcie Brown through deep square leg in the 11th over, which was his first boundary and he stagnated the 15th ball he faced. About 20 more balls passed before Bharat found the boundary again, in the 14th over where the desired run-rate was over ten an over. Bharat requires 62 runs from the maximum six overs.
Every half-century for Harmanpreet, however, is no longer a plethora.
Bharat’s captain practically single-handedly kept her side in the hunt, especially when the boundaries withered. At the end of the 14th over, he lost the four that rekindled the chase and continued to look for gaps in the ground that kept Bharat on it. Deepti, the closer, sent Wareham over the effective cut for 4, Harmanpreet split the space between staying safe and mid-on.
Deepti and Ghosh were ignored in the three-ball size and Harmanpreet hit successive fours off Gardner to ensure Bharat stayed in the game. She scored a fifty off 44 balls but was at the non-striker’s end for much of the last over, from where she saw four wickets fall and Bharat’s chances diminish.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket
