India stun Australia in record chase to reach final

ICC Women's World Cup semi-final, Navi Mumbai

Australia 338 (49.5 overs): Litchfield 119 (93); Charani 2-49

India 341-5 (48.3 overs): Rodrigues 127* (134), Harmanpreet 89 (88)

India won by five wickets

Scorecard

Jemimah Rodrigues hit a remarkable unbeaten century as India completed a record chase to claim a stunning five-wicket win over Australia and reach the Women's World Cup final.

Set 339 to win after a wonderful hundred from Australia opener Phoebe Litchfield, India held their nerve in a mammoth pursuit, with Rodrigues and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur leading the way with a 167-run stand.

Harmanpreet fell for 89 with 113 still needed but Rodrigues remained, reaching her hundred from 115 balls, and she was there at the end as the highest successful chase in women's one-day international history was achieved with nine balls to spare.

Rodrigues was in tears as the India players streamed on to the field after Amanjot Kaur hit the winning runs in front of a delirious home crowd to set up a final against South Africa on Sunday.

This game in Navi Mumbai will go down as an instant classic and with the defending champions dumped out, there will be a new name on the trophy this weekend.

It could all have been so different had Australia taken their chances but a missed stumping gave Harmanpreet a life on 10, while the simplest of catches was put down to reprieve Rodrigues on 82.

Australia captain and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy was the guilty party both times with Alana King the unfortunate bowler.

But both batters were ruthless in making the most of their good fortune as they timed the chase to perfection, with Rodrigues showing intent from the off and Harmanpreet gradually building into her innings after the openers fell in the powerplay.

After Harmanpreet's dismissal, Rodrigues benefited from another dropped catch with Tahlia McGrath letting the ball slip through her fingers from what seemed a straightforward chance at mid-off.

For all that Australia can point to costly errors, it is the brilliance of Rodrigues and her all-time World Cup innings that will live long in the memory.

When Rodrigues wandered across to meet incoming batter Harmanpreet in the 10th over of their reply, India had a mountain to climb.

An excellent Australia review had done for Smriti Mandhana, caught behind down the leg side, and the shine had been taken off India's bright start.

Between that moment and when she sank to the turf in tears once victory was secured, Rodrigues was a picture of calm.

With her captain slow to get started it was left to Rodrigues to seize the initiative and she did so superbly.

The 25-year-old right-hander made it to 75 going at a run-a-ball and hit 10 boundaries before switching roles once Harmanpreet was set.

While her captain powered on, Rodrigues did not hit a boundary between the 28th and 43rd overs but was not fazed, making only one error - on 82 - in that time.

An ill-advised sweep off King sent the ball high into the leg side, and bowler and wicketkeeper went after it before Healy shelled the simplest of catches.

It was a moment reminiscent of Herschelle Gibbs' infamous drop of Steve Waugh at the 1999 World Cup, but given how dialled-in Rodrigues was it seems unlikely she followed Waugh's lead and asked Healy how it felt to drop the World Cup.

Instead, she knuckled down and rediscovered her free-scoring form and, with the help of Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh and latterly Amanjot, ensured the chase did not go down to wire.

With Rodrigues heading into a World Cup final as India's hero, it is hard to believe she was dropped after two ducks early in the tournament.

An unbeaten 127 runs later, her redemption is now complete and should India triumph on Sunday, she and her team-mates will join the country's cricketing immortals.

Few would have predicted the outcome at the halfway stage as Australia racked up a seemingly commanding total on a good batting surface.

But even then, there was a feeling the seven-time winners had left plenty of runs out there having stuttered slightly after the fantastic platform built by Litchfield.

The left-hander has had a quiet tournament by her standards, passing fifty only once prior to the semi-final, but she was in fine nick from the off here.

While Healy, back after missing Australia's last two group games through injury, struggled to get going, Litchfield took the attack to the India bowlers.

The 22-year-old made little secret of the fact she was targeting the off side but her timing and placement was such that India could not stop her racing to a 77-ball ton.

Lofted drive after lofted drive cleared the in-field and raced away with 15 of Litchfield's 17 fours, and all three of her sixes, coming on the off side.

In total 85% of her runs were scored on that side of the wicket and even without her runs on the leg side, she would have scored 101.

But ultimately her efforts were in vain as Australia suffered two mini-collapses after she departed, going from 220-2 to 265-6, before losing their last four wickets for only seven runs.

Three needless run outs did not help and where the 375 they were on course for might have been a winning total, the 338 all out they ended up with most certainly was not.

Player of the match, India batter Jemimah Rodrigues: "This has been really hard but it is a dream and this has not sunk in yet.

"It was not to prove a point but just to win this for India. We have always lost in these situations and I wanted to be there until the end to take us through.

"Today was not about my 50 or my 100, it was about making India win. I did things at the right time and everything was just set up for this.

"I have cried almost every day in this World Cup with anxiety but God took everything for me."

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur: "I'm very proud, I don't have words to express myself. Feeling great, we've been working for so many years. It's an amazing feeling.

"We've done this. We have this trust that every player can win any match, in any situation. We made some mistakes in this tournament, but we've learning from these mistakes. We kept telling ourselves to be there for the team."

Australia captain Alyssa Healy: "Good contest in the end. We did that to ourselves a little bit. We did not finish off with the bat and we dropped catches in the field. We still hung in but we were outdone in the end."