Women's World Cup: Bossy Aussies rule India

Indiarsquos path to the semifinals got a lot tougher after a sixwicket loss to Australia in the Womenrsquos World Cup here on Saturday as the Meg Lanningled side became the first to qualify for the last four stage with a record chase in tournament historyHalfcenturies from skipper Mithali Raj 68 off 96 balls Yastika Bhatia 59 off 83 and Harmanpreet Kaur 57 not out steered India to 277 for sevenAustralia captain Meg Lanning cuts one during her 107ball 97 v IndiaRecord chaseThe total had never been chased before in tournament history but Australiarsquos ominous form and batting friendly conditions at Eden Park meant that they cruised to their fifth win in as many gamesOpeners Alyssa Healy 72 off 65 and Rachael Haynes 43 off 52 got Australia off to a flier with a 121run stand before skipper Lanning 97 off 107 took the team on the cusp of victory Jhulan Goswami needed to defend eight runs off the final over but Beth Mooney 30 not out of 20 got the job done in the first three ballsAustralia opener Alyssa Healy during her 65ball 72 against IndiaThe path to the semifinals has become tougher for India after their third loss in five games The 2017 edition runnersup play their remaining games against South Africa and BangladeshldquoWhen you lose you always feel you are 1015 runs short I think the way Australia started the innings they were always ahead of the asking rate Our fielders couldnrsquot back up our bowlers The batting is something we wanted to improve and we did We need to do well in all departments in the remaining games Next two games are must winrdquo said Raj after the defeatIf batting was a concern for India before the game Australia chasing down a stiff target with ease has given the bowlers plenty to ponder overHealy was the aggressor alongside the inform Haynes and toyed with the Indian attackmdashbe it pacers or spinnersThe likes of Goswami and Meghna Singh were either too full or too short early on and Healy was quick to punish them with a flurry of cover drives cut shots and pullsIndiarsquos toporder batter Bhatia felt that her team could have picked some wickets in the Powerplay Australia raced to 670 while India managed just 392 in the Powerplay phase ldquoIt was a defendable total Credit to the Australian batters for the way they started Healy and Haynes started very aggressively We wouldrsquove liked for a few wickets in the Powerplay but they played wellrdquo Bhatia said at the postmatch press conferenceHealy sweeps itWhen Indiarsquos best spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad came into the attack Alyssa used the sweep shot brilliantly The fact that India played a bowler less in the absence of Deepti Sharma was also an issue Bhatia felt Harmanpreetrsquos parttime offspin could have been used ldquoHarry di Harmanpreet was bowling in the nets We thought we can use her in the middle overs but I donrsquot know what the captain had in mind We will see in future matches if we need Harry di she can bowlrdquo said BhatiaBrief scoresIndia 277 for 7 in 50 over M Raj 68 Y Bhatia 59 H Kaur 57 not out D Brown 330 lost to Australia 280 for 4 in 493 overs M Lanning 97 A Healy 72 by six wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever