Zeecric Bureau
St Lucia: Indian eves’ dream run in the T20 World Cup came to an end when they lost to Australia by 7 wickets in the semi-finals of the prestigious event on Thursday.
Chasing 120 for victory, Australia overhauled the target set by India with 7 balls to spare.
Alex Blackwell was the chief architect of the Australian victory as she played an enterprising knock of 61 off just 49 balls.
Despite having suffered early blows, Australians gradually took control of the situation with Blackwell and Leah Pulton leading the run-chase.
Pulton romped her team home in 18.5 overs with an unbeaten 26-ball 30.
Earlier, electing to bat first, Indian eves could manage to score 119 for five in their allotted 20 overs. Poonam Raut was the mainstay of the Indian innings as she held fort single-handedly with a 51-ball 44.
Like always, star batswomen Mithali Raj started playing well but she could not go beyond 16-run mark as Indian innings missed the much-needed firepower in the middle overs.
Harmanpreet Kaur (24) and Amita Sharma (17) tried their best in the last four overs to help India reach a respectable total of 119/5.
First Published: Friday, May 14, 2010, 10:09