The Indian Women’s team made a brilliant kick start to the Women’s T20 World Cup on February 12 with the IND vs PAK match. India won their first match against Pakistan Women by seven wickets at Newlands, Australia. It was evident that Indian women are taking their Asia Cup 2022 defeat revenge from their neighboring country . Pakistan set a target of 149/9 for the Indian team after winning the toss and opting to bat first.
After a successful win over the arch rivals Pakistan, the next campaign was IND vs WI. In this match, Women in blue were against former champions West Indies in the second match of Group B. The match was held at Newlands, Cape Town February 15. The Indian team was supported by the return of Smriti Mandhana as she recovered from her injury. Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh shone brightly in India’s victory.
Later, India failed to chase the target against England leading to the first game loss in this campaign. India lost the match to England by 11 runs.The Indian women’s team won the toss and opted to bowl first. Batting first, Nat Sciver took the charge of the batting and smashed a half century. But she was later dismissed by Deepti Sharma. It was Renuka Thakur who was in highlight because of her maiden fifer. Both at the beginning and at the end of the inning her brilliant bowling, damaged the English players.
England gave a superb bowling performance defending 151/7 leading to India’s defeat at St George’s Park in Gqebera on February 18. Smriti Mandhana scored a dynamic half century to put India in a good position in the 2nd inning.
India then qualified for the semifinals by defeating Ireland in the match. India defeated Ireland by five runs in the Duckworth-Lewis method at the rain-barred match at Newlands Cricket Ground. The match was played on February 20 in South Africa.
India won the toss and then chose to bat first. India set a 155 run for 6 wickets target. Smriti Mandhana hit a T20I career-best 87 off 56 balls. Ireland, while chasing the target, was disturbed because of heavy rain and Ireland stood at a score of 54 runs for two in 8.2 overs. The DLS score after 8.2 overs came to be 59 and Ireland was 5 runs short of the total.
Australia thrashed India in the semi-finals by just 5 runs to enter the finals of Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. Defending champions Australia held their nerves as they beat India on February 23. A first-innings total of 172 runs on 4 wickets proved just marginally out of reach to India. Despite a horrific middle-order effort, the game was pulled right down to the final few deliveries. India could reach the score of 167/8 in its 20 overs. Harmanpreet Kaur’s half-century went in vain as the team lost the semis.
This was an overview of India’s campaign at the Women’s T20 World Cup.
