The second semi-final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2025 between co-hosts India and Australia had a contentious decision which left the home crowd in stunned silence at the DY Patil Stadium
in Navi Mumbai. In pursuit of a daunting target of 339 runs, Indian vice-captain opener Smriti Mandhana got off to a good start, scoring 24 off 24 with two fours and one six before she was giving her marching orders via a DRS call, which she seemingly reckoned wasn’t the right decision and was left in disbelief.
The big moment in the match happened on the second delivery of the 10th over on a length ball from Kim Garth, which was outside the leg stump of left-handed Smriti Mandhana. She wanted to flick it away fine for a boundary only to miss it before Australian captain Alyssa Healy and few of her teammates appealed, believing that she nicked the ball on its way through to the wicket-keeper.
Watch the video here:
When the on-field umpire gave Smirit Mandhana not out, the Australian captain sent the decision up stairs in the nick of time before snicko showed a feather as the ball was next to the bat. It led to the third umpire instructing the on-field umpire to change the decision, giving the Indian vice-captain out, which led to an atmosphere of shock inside the stadium while she seemingly muttered on camera about not nicking the ball.
Below are the playing XIs of India and Australia for ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 semi-final:
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Amanjot Kaur, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Kranti Gaud, N Shree Charani, Renuka Singh
Australia: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Kim Garth, Alana King, Megan Schutt
