ICC Women’s World Cup: India face Australia in semi-final showdown today

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The second semi-final match of the Women's World Cup 2025 will be played today between India and Australia at the DY Patil Sports Academy. The team that wins this match will face South Africa in the final on November 2. Ahead of the semi-finals, Team India has received some relief. Opener Shafali Verma has returned to the team. Meanwhile, Pratika Rawal has been ruled out of the entire tournament due to an ankle injury suffered while fielding during the final group match against Bangladesh. This gives Shafali a golden opportunity to showcase her abilities once again.

ICC Women's World Cup: India and Australia clash in the semi-finals today, the winning team will face South Africa. : The Indian team will expect a great performance from opener Smriti Mandhana and captain Harmanpreet Kaur in this crucial match. All-rounder Deepti Sharma is expected to contribute with both bat and ball, while bowler Kranti Gaud can pose a challenge for the Australian batsmen. From Australia's side, Beth Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner will be responsible for batting. In bowling, Alana King and Annabel Sutherland can trouble the Indian batsmen.

The two teams have faced each other in 60 ODIs, with Australia winning 49 of them and India winning 11. This will be the third semi-final between India and Australia in the history of the Women's ODI World Cup.

The pitch chosen for this match is the same one on which Sri Lanka faced Bangladesh in the opening match of the Navi Mumbai leg. This pitch is considered to be favorable for batsmen. However, Navi Mumbai has recently received rain and a yellow alert has been issued for Wednesday and Thursday. If the match cannot be completed on Thursday, it will be postponed to the reserve day. This semi-final match between India and Australia will begin at 3 pm IST, with the toss taking place at 2:30 pm. The match will be telecast live on the Star Sports network and live streaming will be available on JioHotstar.