Meg Lanning scored a captain’s century to help Australia win their sixth match in a row in the Women’s Cricket World Cup.
On Saturday, she scored 97 off 107 balls as her side chased down 278 and won by six wickets with three balls to spare at Eden Park in Auckland.
It was the third-highest successful chase in the history of women’s one-day international cricket, demonstrating that the tournament favourites will need something spectacular to fall apart.
Alyssa Healy top-scored for Australia with 72 off 65 balls, putting them ahead of the needed run rate early on, but late wobbles following a 20-minute rain break with nine overs to play complicated things.
The loss of Meg Lanning in the penultimate over made for a tense finale, but Beth Mooney struck the first and third balls of the last over for four to finish unbeaten on 30 off 20 with eight balls to spare.
When Lanning won the toss and elected to bowl, Australia was set up to pursue, and they enjoyed instant success thanks to seamer Darcie Brown, who took two early wickets.
Yastika Bhatia and Mithali Raj then put on a 130-run third-wicket stand, putting India on track to achieve a huge total.
Ellyse Perry had a nightmare of an opening over, bowling six wides and allowing 16 runs in total from 12 deliveries.
The India fans rejoiced at her misery, but they also had something to cheer about in the form of their own hitters.
Harmanpreet Kaur took over when Bhatia was dismissed for 59 and Raj was dismissed for 68, finishing unbeaten on 57 with the help of Pooja Vastrakar, who was dismissed for 34 off 28 off the final ball.
Brown finished with a score of 3-30, while leg-spinner Alana King finished with a score of 2-52.
The Big Picture
Australia’s victory qualified them for the semifinals, setting up a matchup between the two unbeaten teams on Tuesday at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, when they face South Africa in an ODI for the first time since the 2017 World Cup. India must now win their match against Bangladesh on Tuesday at Seddon Park in Hamilton before facing the Proteas in the round-robin final on Sunday.
Final Scoreboard
Scoreboard
At Eden Park, Auckland: India 277-7 (Mithali Raj 68, Yastika Bhatia 59, Harmanpreet Kaur 57no; Darcie Brown 3-30, Alana King 2-52) lost to Australia 280-4 in 49.3 overs (Meg Lanning 97, Alyssa Healy 72, Rachael Haynes 43; Pooja Vastrakar 2-43) by six wickets