India v Australia: ICC Women’s World Cup – live!

The unbeaten World Cup streak rolls on, and the biggest ever World Cup chase is completed. The match did get closer than one might have expected, with India able to push it into the final over. But eight runs from six balls was always likely to favour Australia, and India would have needed a wicket in that final over to sneak a win.

Put most of it down to Australia’s openers, who scored 121 at better than a run a ball to give the rest of their order latitude. Another century partnership followed between the old firm of Lanning and Perry. Mooney has elevated herself to the very top tier of international players in the last three years or so, and finished it off. India’s recovery with the bat was very good, but against this batting line-up, even their big score looked a bit light on a nice batting surface.

50th over: Australia 280-4 (Mooney 30, McGrath 0) Beth Mooney is ice cold. Ice cold. This is exactly like her big chase against India in Queensland last September. First ball of the over, advances at Goswami and plonks her over wide long-on for four! Exactly the spot she hits so often when she needs a boundary. A straight length ball from Goswami exactly the ticket. Then Mooney goes through point, drawing a fumble from the fielder thanks to the pressure of Mooney’s pace between the wickets. Two runs. And she finishes it off with a straight hit down the ground for four. What a star.

49th over: Australia 270-4 (Mooney 20, McGrath 0) One ball to come in the over as Tahlia McGrath walks out. Meghna Singh bowls a wide, very wide of off stump, but McGrath is so fixated on looking to score that she throws bat at it, having walked across. She hits it straight to backward point along the ground. Dot ball. Australia need 8 from the last over.

Well, well, well. Three singles from the over, both Australians trying to beat the boundary riders and failing, before Meghna bowls width. Lanning aims the square drive, trying to beat those backward points, but gets a thick dipping edge. Great catch by Vastrakar diving forward. This is tight!

48th over: Australia 267-3 (Lanning 96, Mooney 18) Lanning thinking about a century perhaps, swishes at Goswami and misses wide of off. Gets the next one, square of the sweeper behind point and they get back for a second run. Goswami persists with that line, and the two backward points are in business. Once they block Lannings shot, twice, three times! Last ball she drives to cover and there’s no run. So she loses the strike, can’t get the ton, and Australia now need 11 from 12. The game matters much more than someone’s milestone, so expect to see Mooney go for it.

47th over: Australia 265-3 (Lanning 94, Mooney 18) Meghna Singh returns with two overs of her allotment left. Been expensive, 57 from eight overs so far. Adds to that with a couple of singles and then a Mooney carve backward of point. Lanning gets strike, then sprints to keep it from the last ball, tapped to cover.

46th over: Australia 257-3 (Lanning 92, Mooney 12) Jhulan Goswami has three overs left and will start that sequence now. Starts with a Lanning run behind point. Brings in a wide slip for the left-hander, but Mooney just taps and runs a single to mid-off. Lanning back-cuts a good line to the deep third sweeper. Bottom-handed whack from Mooney finds mid-on. Late cut for one. Then Lanning picks the gap! Just like last time. The singles, the singles, then Australia’s captain sizes up the gap, gets just enough width, and places it behind point, too square for deep third, too fine for deep cover.

21 from 24.

45th over: Australia 249-3 (Lanning 86, Mooney 10) Crashed by Mooney! Advances at Gayakwad and flat-bats the spinner through midwicket. Takes a fast two followed by a single. Lanning drives a run to deep cover to keep the strike, and Gayakwad finishes with 0 for 48 from her ten overs. Vastrakar took 2 for 43.

29 from 30.

44th over: Australia 241-3 (Lanning 85, Mooney 3) Vastrakar to bowl her last over, and Lanning glides a run to deep third as she has so many times in her long career. Mooney advances and tries to find the boundary through wide long on, but can only get one. Lanning leans back to cut, and there is the sweeper once again. Mooney drops and runs to point. And finally the one to pierce the field comes. Enough width for Lanning to throw her hands through it, her scything square drive, behind point this time for four. Australia need 37 from 36.

43rd over: Australia 233-3 (Lanning 79, Mooney 1) Gayakwad turns one past the edge for the third time today, though this time Lanning plays the line and isn’t at much risk of nicking. Anchored to the crease, she can only dig out the next couple, then Mooney calls her through for a sharp single. Mooney can’t beat the field, and that makes the equation 45 from 42 balls.

42nd over: Australia 232-3 (Lanning 78, Mooney 1) Australia aren’t fazed. Beth Mooney gets off strike first ball she faces. Lanning pulls a half-hearted half-tracker for four, then takes a run to keep the strike. That leaves 46 to win.

First over back, another century stand comes to an end for Lanning and Perry. Nine of them now, in their career. The most ever is Rolton and Keightley with ten. Perry gets cramped for room against a high full toss and squeezes it to cover for a catch.

While we’re waiting, it’s a good time to make some observations about the Lanning-Perry partnership in broader terms. Today they went past 2000 runs together, currently on 2024.

There are only five more prolific pairings in women’s ODI cricket. Charlotte Edwards and Claire Taylor, Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt, Suzie Bates and Amy Satterthwaite, Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor, and Belinda Clark and Lisa Keightley.

Most of those are within 500 runs ahead of the Australian pair, except for Clark and Keightley on 3339.

Lanning and Perry have batted together 27 times. The other pairings have batted together respectively 58, 51, 52, 59, and 67 times.

Lanning and Perry average 101.50 right at the moment. The next best of those above them is 52.17.

They only put down the pitch cover, not the whole square, and now they’re taking that cover off.

That was sudden. The rain starts coming down fairly heavily. Australia are well ahead of the par score on the rain calculations, 28 runs there.

41st over: Australia 225-2 (Lanning 73, Perry 28) A concussion protocol delay after Perry misses a sweep and pops it up into the grille of her helmet, but she’s fine. The second ball in a row that she was beaten by Gayakwad, who had previously scooted a ball past an attempted cut shot. Only a scampered single from the over. Australia need 53 from 54.

40th over: Australia 224-2 (Lanning 73, Perry 27) Vastrakar has been the standout for India today, batted well and has bowled with heart. Only two singles for her over as she tries to clamp down, but Australia still only need 54 from 60.

39th over: Australia 222-2 (Lanning 72, Perry 26) Sprinting from Perry to start the over, who hits Goswami through point and hares back for the second. The Australians have picked on Harmanpreet in the field all night, taking on her arm. Perry ends the over by nailing a straight drive along the ground that is so well hit that it bursts through the fingertips of mid-on and is barely diverted on its way to the boundary.

38th over: Australia 211-2 (Lanning 69, Perry 19) Perry goes in the air, short of the deep midwicket rushing in. One run. More for Lanning, flicking Rana through fine leg for four, improvising that shot against a decent enough delivery. 67 to win.

37th over: Australia 204-2 (Lanning 64, Perry 17) Good length from Goswami, who has Perry almost feathering a catch behind from a hard-handed drive. India try to crowd Lanning with two backward points, while Goswami bowls outside off stump encouraging Lanning to hit there. 74 to win.

36th over: Australia 201-2 (Lanning 62, Perry 16) For a lot of teams, 81 from 90 balls would be a challenging end to a chase. For these Australians it feels like a foregone conclusion. The pitch is good for batting, some pace and bounce in it, and India have not been able to tighten the snare for any meaningful period of time. Four runs from the Rana over, Australia’s score passes 200.

35th over: Australia 197-2 (Lanning 59, Perry 15) Goswami bowls a Test match line, Lanning throws a one-day shot at it, and gets a safe edge through an empty slip area for four. 81 runs to go.

34th over: Australia 191-2 (Lanning 54, Perry 14) A miscued shot for the milestone, Lanning getting a skew through the off side while trying to work Rana to leg, but it’s safe. The relentless march of Australia’s captain continues.

33rd over: Australia 185-2 (Lanning 49, Perry 13) Goswami comes back on for a tentative bowl: hasn’t done so since three early overs and an ankle problem. The Australians respectfully take a couple of singles.

32nd over: Australia 183-2 (Lanning 48, Perry 12) Meghna Singh has had a bad night. Short and wide again, crashed through point for four. Then draws an error from a short ball but the top edge goes fine for another boundary. Lanning draws near to a fifty.

31st over: Australia 171-2 (Lanning 39, Perry 10) Time for Lanning to have a crack, she decides, with a big slog sweep over backward square leg for four. Shafali Verma in the deep almost gets around to catch that, but not quite. The singles keep coming either side of that shot.

30th over: Australia 164-2 (Lanning 34, Perry 8) Another controlled over from Gayakwad after the break, two singles from it. The required rate is out to 5.7 now and the actual rate has dipped below that. Easy for Australia to make up the gap, of course, but it does at least show that the scoring has slowed. If India could find another wicket then they would be some chance of increasing the pressure.

29th over: Australia 162-2 (Lanning 33, Perry 7) Four for Lanning, carving a cut shot from Sneh Rana’s off-spin. Rana smiles, what more can she do? But she follows up with a much faster straight delivery that Lanning only just keeps out of her pads. Smart bowling. Drinks, with 116 needed to win.

28th over: Australia 156-2 (Lanning 28, Perry 6) Take on the seamer, not yet the spinner. Both players are cautious against Gayakwad, and with Lanning stretching forward to defend, the left-arm spinner once more turns a ball that kicks and just beats the edge of the bat. She’s bowled a couple of pearlers as well as some loose stuff.

27th over: Australia 154-2 (Lanning 27, Perry 5) Lanning wrenches the run rate back Australia’s way as Meghna Singh returns, bowling short and carved away off the top edge through deep third for one four, then smoked out of the middle through point for another. 124 to win.

26th over: Australia 144-2 (Lanning 18, Perry 4) Just the two runs from Gayakwad’s over of spin, and for the first time in the innings the required rate has crept above the current rate at around 5.5 an over.

25th over: Australia 142-2 (Lanning 17, Perry 3) Another bouncer from Vastrakar, this time way over Lanning’s head. Wide. Lanning finds another boundary with her square drive, then Perry is nearly run out after defending back to Vastrakar with a step forward out of her crease. Vastrakar was sharp enough to fire back at the stumps, but just missed, and Perry was snaking her foot back to safety.

Halfway point. 136 to win.

24th over: Australia 135-2 (Lanning 12, Perry 2) India slowing things down for a moment, only two from the Gayakward over. Must take advantage of this to press for another wicket, rather than letting these two build.

23rd over: Australia 133-2 (Lanning 11, Perry 1) Perry glides a single to get going, Lanning adds a two and a one. Goswami is back on the field.

22nd over: Australia 129-2 (Lanning 8, Perry 0) A strange shot from Lanning to start the partnership, a little pick-up pull to a ball that was too full and outside off from Rana, just clearing short fine leg. But she gets things moving properly with a classy square drive for four.