India have been knocked out of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 after suffering a loss to Australia in their last group stage match at Lord’s, London. The Women in Blue had to win their last match at any cost for them to progress into the semifinals; however, they failed to defend 170 against the mighty Aussies and suffered a horror group stage exit, a second straight one in the T20 World Cups.
Australia chased down the biggest ever target in Women’s T20 World Cups as they hunted down the score with six wickets in hand and one over to spare. Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner took the Aussies home with a 100-run stand for the fourth wicket that took the game away from the Women in Blue. The game was in the balance until then, but the veteran Aussie duo changed the complexion of the game. Perry made 56 from 38 balls, while Gardner scored an unbeaten 53 from 29 deliveries as the Aussies romped home with ease in the end.
Renuka gave the early joy but middle overs did it for Australia
India were very much in the game. Renuka Singh Thakur had gotย Georgia Voll LBW through a review overturned in their favour. The Aussies were lingering at 25/1 after four overs, but Beth Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield took 24 from the next two overs.ย
India struck after the powerplay when Shree Charani got Litchfield caught at long-off before Deepti Sharma also removed Mooney caught at long-on to complete her milestone 356th wicket in International cricket. Australia were in trouble as they were 68/3 after 10.1 overs, needing another 103 runs from 59 balls.ย
The Aussies then staged a comeback after bit of a build-up. They took 17 runs in the 13th over of Radha to shift the momentum before Charani gave 16 in the 15th. The momentum had shifted, and the flow of runs kept coming with Shafali giving 12 in the 16th over and then Renuka leaking 17 in the next one. By this time, the game had slipped away from India as the Aussies needed 17 runs from 18 balls and they did it with one over to spare.
Harmanpreet took India to 170/4
It was Harmanpreet Kaur’s late blitz of 56 from 27 balls that took India to a decent 170/4 earlier in the first innings. Her knock saw the Indian captain hit three straight sixes in the final over as Jemimah Rodrigues was retired hurt to bring Richa Ghosh in. However, the wicketkeeper played only one ball for a single. Earlier, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma had put up a 66-run stand for the opening wicket to take India to a fine start. But it all went in vain as India got knocked out twice in the group stage, having been eliminated in the same phase in the 2024 T20 World Cup too.
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