India registered a stunning win by five wickets in the Women's World Cup semi-final against Australia on Thursday, October 30, in Navi Mumbai. They chased down a 339-run target in 48.3 overs after Jemimah
Rodrigues slammed an unbeaten century (127* off 134). Harmanpreet Kaur (89 off 88), Deepti Sharma (24 off 17), and Richa Ghosh (26 off 16) also made important contributions to take the hosts over the line.
Amanjot Kaur also chipped in with her all-round exploits. She bagged the crucial wicket of Phoebe Litchfield (119 off 93) in the 28th over, breaking a 155-run partnership with Ellyse Perry. With the bat, Amanjot made a crucial 15 off eight balls, taking her team to victory.
Amanjot revealed that her plan while bowling to Litchfield was to stitch a few dots by delivering balls at the stumps. The all-rounder believed that the in-form batter would try to do something different if she could stop her from scoring runs freely.
"I was trying to contain as much as possible, and Litchfield is a very aggressive batter, and I knew that with a few dot balls she would try to do something different. It was just a basic plan of bowling at the stumps," said Amanjot after the match.
The 25-year-old also admitted that India were anticipating a target of around 380 runs, but once they got the wicket of Litchfield, it prevented Australia from finishing strongly.
"We were expecting a target around 380 because the wicket was very good. But with the dismissal of Litchfield, the game moved in our favour and from there and we did not leak a lot of runs and Charani bowled a very good spell according to the wicket," Amanjot explained.
I asked her if I should charge against the bowlers: Amanjot
When Amanjot came out to bat, India needed 29 runs in the last four overs with five wickets to spare. Jemimah was batting on 113 off 127 balls at the time. Amanjot said that she asked the set batter how she should approach the innings. The former asked whether she should play the aggressor's role, but Jemimah said that they run well between the sticks and should see their team home.
"She (Jemimah) was (at the crease in) in the second over and it is a huge thing to stay till the end in this heat and humidity. She did not give up, she kept on fighting and she needed someone to be there with her," Amanjot said.
"I asked her if I should charge against the bowlers. She said because we run between the wickets well, we will be able to see it through. She asked me to have a look at the wicket and when I faced the first delivery, I thought what a beautiful track it was. Then we decided to finish it off with one over remaining," she added.
Amanjot said defeating Australia was a different feeling and asserted that the whole team is determined to lift the coveted title.
"It was very important because it is such a big tournament, and a few matches had not gone our way and it is of course a different feeling to beat Australia," she said.
" (and) who doesn't want to win the World Cup? Harmanpreet (Kaur) wants it, Smriti (Mandhana) wants it. The whole of India wants it, and we will give everything (to win it). There will be a different champion this time as both the teams (India and South Africa) haven't won the trophy. Our mindset as a team is to help each other, back each other. We do not think much about the result," Amanjot concluded.
