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

Annesha Ghosh | February 22, 2023

Alyssa Healy is set to return for the T20 World Cup semi-final against India, as the  only team to have beaten Australia in almost two years stand between the defending champions and another decider.

Healy missed Australia’s last group match against South Africa with a quad complaint, but is on track to play in Thursday’s semi-final at Newlands in Cape Town.

Her inclusion would be a massive boost, after she overcame a calf injury before the tournament to be her team’s leading run scorer in the tournament.

Australia head into the semi as firm favourites, wielding a 3-2 edge over India in T20 World Cup encounters.

Five-time champions in seven previous iterations of the 20-over showpiece, Australia are yet to drop a game at the eighth edition in South Africa.

But according to batter Beth Mooney, their recent history against India, runners-up in the 2020 T20 World Cup, leaves no room for complacency.

“I’m expecting it to be a huge contest, obviously,” Mooney said.

“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.”

En route to the knockout stage, Australia 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 astute quicks, Meg Lanning’s side made good on their tournament call for “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.

But India also have personnel who are a force to reckon, emphasised Mooney.

“They play a lot of spinners. So, I’m sure we’ll see a lot of the batters in the top order facing a significant amount of spin,” Mooney said.

“And we’ve seen with Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana at the top of the order; they go pretty hard, and Richa Ghosh in the middle … We certainly know the style of play they’ve come at us with in the past.

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

The two sides contested the T20 World Cup final in 2020, when Healy took the game away from India, and last met in a T20I series last December.

Though Australia won the series in India 4-1, the hosts’ super-over victory in the second match, before a 47,000-strong crowd, showed they can beat the world champions on their night.

One of the standout performers in that game, swing bowler Renuka Singh, is India’s leading wicket-taker at this tournament.

Mooney, the leading run-scorer on that tour, believes regardless of the conditions at Newlands, Australia have every reason to be wary 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 said.

“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.”