India women’s team lost their Commonwealth Games (CWG 2022) opener to Australia in a thrilling encounter that saw the Women’s T20 World champions come back from 49/5 to chase down a stiff target of 155 with 3 wickets and one over to spare.
Harmanpreet Kaur had won the toss in Birmingham and chose to bat first. She made 52, while Shafali Verma made 48 and Smriti Mandhana made 24 runs as India managed to put 154/8 in 20 overs. Jess Jonassen with 4/22 and Megan Schutt with 2/26 were the best Australian bowlers.
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In the chase, Renuka Singh Thakur demolished the Australian top order with a career-best figure of 4/18 leaving them 49/5 in 7.2 overs. It seemed that India will win the match from there on.
But they got a rude shock as Ashleigh Gardner took the counter-attack to India bowlers making 52* with 9 fours and with the support from Grace Harris (37 in 20 with 2 sixes and 5 fours) and their 51-run partnership, took Australia past the finishing line. Alana King also made 18* in 16 balls.
Australia won by 3 wickets and 1 over to spare with Deepti Sharma picking 2/24 in her 4 overs.
With this loss, India will now look to win both their remaining games- against Pakistan on July 31 and Barbados on August 3 to qualify for the knockouts.
The cricket fraternity reacted to the Australian victory in a difficult situation and shared their thoughts on social media.
Here are some of the tweets:
