India will take on England in Sunday's ICC Women's World Cup final after Harmanpreet Kaur's stunning 171 not out set up a 36-run victory over defending champions Australia, at Derby.
Match scores (Derby)
India beat Australia by 36 runs
India: 281-4 (42/42 overs. Kaur 171*, Raj 36; Villani 1-19, Gardner 1-43)
Australia 245 (40.1/42 overs. Blackwell 90, Villani 75, Perry 38; Sharma 3-59, Pandey 2-17, Goswami 2-35)
Match report
India will take on England in Sunday's ICC Women's World Cup final after Harmanpreet Kaur's stunning 171 not out set up a 36-run victory over defending champions Australia, at Derby.
Kaur smashed 20 fours and seven sixes in her sensational 115-ball innings against a shell-shocked Australian side, who conceded 139 runs off the final 11 overs of the innings - India amassing 281-4 in a match reduced to 42-overs-a-side by rain.
Elyse Villani (75 off 57 balls) and Ellyse Perry (38) tried to return fire but the chase folded to 245 all out in 40.1 overs despite a belated, bullish 90no from Alex Blackwell - India through to the World Cup final for only the second time in their history.
After a three-hour delay to proceedings due to early morning showers, when India eventually won the toss it was no surprise to see them elect to make first use of the Derby surface, having won all four of their games on the ground during the tournament when batting first.
Early wickets swiftly followed though, with Smriti Mandhana (six) gifting a leading edge to cover off Megan Schutt (1-64) and fellow opener Punam Raut (14) holing out to cover off Ashleigh Gardner (1-43).
In came Kaur, who, along with captain Mithali Raj (36), steadied the innings with their 66-run stand for the third wicket - ended when leg-spinner Kristen Beams (1-49) bowled Raj.
Kaur found another willing partner in Deepti Sharma (25), the pair putting on 137 together, though the latter incurred Kaur's wrath when she went through to her century, as the scampered two to reach the milestone nearly resulted in her partner being run out.
While Sharma was bowled in the latter overs when looking to slog Villani (1-19), in her solitary over, Kaur kicked on, brutally dismantling Australia's sorry attack - Jess Jonassen particularly took some tap, with her seven overs costing 63.
In the 40th over of the innings, a badly-cramping Kaur passed 150, becoming only the 15th player in women's cricket history, and second Indian, to do so, as she fired her team up to an imposing score.
Australia wilted in the face of the task in front of them - Beth Mooney losing her off stump to Shikha Pandey and skipper Meg Lanning bowled for an eight-ball duck by Jhulan Goswami.
When Nicole Bolton chipped a return catch back to Sharma, Australia were in deep trouble at 21-3 only for Villani and Perry to rally the chase with a stand of 105 for the fourth wicket.
Villani struck 10 fours in her 41-ball fifty but fell trying to force the pace off the bowling off Rajeshwari Gayakwad and when Perry snicked behind, trying to run Pandey to third man, and Ashleigh Gardner chipped a catch to Raj to make it 152-7 the game was as good as up.
Australia's day was summed up when Goswami touched a straight drive from Alex Blackwell back onto the stumps at the non-striker's end to run Jonassen out for one.
Blackwell battled gamely to the end, sharing a last-wicket stand of 76 with Kristen Beams - hitting 10 fours and three sixes off 56 deliveries - but the day belonged to Kaur and India.
