ICC Women’s T20 WC: Team India fails to reach semi-finals, journey ends with defeat at the hands of Australia

The Indian team has been eliminated in the group stage of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. To reach the semi-finals, Team India had to face defeat by 6 wickets at the hands of 6-time champion Australia in its last match of the group stage. With this defeat, the journey of Team India under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur ended in the World Cup. Due to the defeat of Team India, South Africa got a place in the semi-finals. On the other hand, Australia entered the semi-finals directly without losing any match.

In this match played at Lord’s, not only India but also the South African team and their fans were watching. Australia’s place in the semi-finals from this group was already confirmed, while the contest for the second place was between Team India and South Africa. India-Australia clash Shortly before, South Africa had reached 8 points by defeating Bangladesh in a thrilling match in their last group match on the same ground. But its net run rate was less than India. In such a situation, Team India needed only victory to move ahead.

Strong score made on the strength of Harmanpreet

Team India itself decided to bat first and for that the pair of Smriti Mandhana-Shefali Verma (34) made a strong start. Especially Shefali paid more attention to scoring boundaries. But after the powerplay, the pace of both slowed down. This partnership broke in the 10th over of the innings at the score of 66 and then Mandhana was also run out in the 12th over. Mandhana was at the crease till the 12th over but could score only 38 runs in 37 balls.

From here captain Harmanpreet Kaur took the innings forward with Jemimah Rodriguez (34). But while Captain Kaur was scoring runs quickly, Jemima was not getting much success. Then in the last over, Harmanpreet (56) completed her fifty in 25 balls with 3 consecutive sixes and the Indian team made a strong score of 170 runs.

Parry and Gardner snatched victory

Whereas Australia lost its first wicket in the first over itself, but after that its batsmen made small partnerships and took the score forward. However, when the team’s third wicket fell in the form of Beth Mooney in the 10th over, the score was only 68 runs. In such a situation, the situation was looking difficult for Australia also. But at this very moment, the best player in the history of women’s cricket, Alice Perry and the team’s second powerful all-rounder, Ashley Gardner, took charge. Then both of them just started scoring boundaries and snatched the match by making a partnership of exactly 100 runs. Parry scored 56 runs in 38 balls and Gardner played an unbeaten inning of 53 runs in 29 balls, helping the team win in 19 overs.