Top knocks from Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning, followed by two-wicket hauls from Ashleigh Gardner and Darcie Brown, guided Australia to a five-run win over India in the first semi-final match of the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup yesterday at Newlands, Cape Town.

Opted to bat first, Australia had a good start to their innings with Beth Mooney smashing 54 off 37 balls while skipper Meg Lanning also smashed an unbeaten 49 off 34 balls.

Chasing 173, India started off on a bad note but Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues provided momentum to their side. However, Jemimah perished for 43 while Harmanpreet departed for 52 as India stumbled in the chase and were restricted for 167/8. For Australia, Darcie Brown and Ashleigh Gardner took two wickets each.

Chief scores:

Australia women: 172/4 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 54, Meg Lanning 49*, Ashleigh Gardner 31, Shikha Pandey 2/32)

India women: 167/8 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 52, Jemimah Rodrigues 42, Deepti Sharma 20, Ashleigh Gardner 2/37, Darcie Brown 2/18