3 reasons why India lost to Australia in the Women's T20 World Cup 2023 semi-final

The Indian women's team suffered another heartbreak at the hands of Australia in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup on Thursday, February 23. In a thrilling game at Newlands in Cape Town, Australia clinched the tie by five runs after seemingly looking dead and buried at one stage.

Harmanpreet Kaur seemed to be cruising along to lead her side to victory before a bizarre runout caught her short of the crease. It proved to be a game-defining moment in the match, tilting the game in favor of the defending champions to give them an opening they pounced upon.

The end result didn't go India's way, but the team had plenty of positives to take from the way they fought throughout the contest. However, they also made some mistakes that proved to be costly.

On that note, we take a look at three reasons why the Women in Blue lost to Australia in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2023:

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#1 Fielding

The work rate and effort on the field has been a long-standing concern for this Indian side for some time now. Unfortunately, the disparity in the standards set on the field between themselves and Australia was on display in the semi-finals.

For the most part, the Women in Blue showed some character on the field but didn't make the most of the chances that came their way. Shafali Verma dropped Beth Mooney when the Australian opener was on 32. The southpaw went on to punish India, scoring 54 before eventually being dismissed.

Meg Lanning was also dropped on one, albeit that was a more difficult chance for Richa Ghosh, and the Australian captain went on to score 49, which took the total to 172.

On the contrary, the defending champions were a class apart on the field, especially in the dying moments of the game. Ellyse Perry's freak effort on the field to save a boundary will be spoken about for a long time to come. Australia also held onto their catches to make sure they seal the game.

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#2 Death bowling

The figures might not reflect as much, but the Indian bowlers did rather well for most of the innings against Australia. They had set plans for the Australian batters, even though they might have been a bit unconventional, to limit the damage and create some wicket-taking opportunities, which weren't taken.

However, death bowling remains a concern for the team. There has been some over-reliance on all-rounder Deepti Sharma. Known for her skills with the new ball, Renuka Singh Thakur had an outing to forget, especially with her final over where she conceded 18 runs.

The team as a whole conceded 61 runs in the last five overs, coming on the receiving end of an absolute shellacking from Ashleigh Gardner. India will need to address the issue sooner rather than later to hold their nerve in crunch situations.

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#3 Lack of clinical edge

The loss might have been down to the wretched luck for India, especially with the run out of Harmanpreet Kaur. However, it was the lack of clinical edge in both innings that worked against them. The bowlers did well to restrict Australia to 172/4 but could have kept their opponents under 160-165 if they were a tad more clinical.

Even during the run chase, the team needed 40 runs off 32 balls with five wickets in hand when their captain was dismissed. On any other day, one would back the batting side to get over the line in that situation. However, India somehow managed to let this slip, much like they did during the Commonwealth Games.