Australia haven't been beaten in the Women's 50-over World Cup since 2017. Here's how India, or one of England or South Africa, could look to pull off the impossible.
How on earth do you beat Australia? No, seriously, is it even possible to craft a plan to topple the most dominant cricket team in history without relying on a freak performance or praying for a collective off-day from a team of all-timers?
The stats suggest not. Since the 2017 World Cup, Australia have lost just six of the 85 ODIs they’ve played. Only once in the last 11 years have they lost a bilateral 50-over series – against England in the 2023 Ashes, when Nat Sciver-Brunt, by her own admission, did “crazy” things. The T20 format might allow opponents to exploit a bad half-hour as South Africa did in last year’s World Cup. But in the 100-over game, Australia are untouchable.
When it comes to World Cup cricket, that gets taken to another level. They haven’t been beaten in the tournament since the 2017 semi-final, when Harmanpreet Kaur’s extraordinary 171* saw them come up short.
It’s against that formidable backdrop that India must somehow devise a plan to reach a home-soil final – or, should they fail, pass that task on to England or South Africa.
To bat or not to bat?
Instinct says that when faced with a side possessing unfathomable batting depth, no first innings total will ever feel safe. Batting first means never quite knowing whether you have enough, and striking the balance between batting long enough and fast enough is almost impossible. Australia brushed aside India’s 330 with an over to spare in the group stage, Alyssa Healy’s century leading a record chase. Of the five highest successful ODI chases in history, Australia have four, two of them in this year alone.
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However, there may be a case to win the toss and tell your openers to get their pads on. In their last three ODI defeats, Australia were the chasing side. They folded for 190 in a 102-run loss to India last month, were blown away by Marizanne Kapp’s new-ball spell against South Africa last year, and were undone by Kate Cross in the 2023 Ashes decider.
All of that is well and good, but it’s still a risk. Australia’s most dominant wins in this tournament – against South Africa, England and Bangladesh – all came when they were batting second. When they did bat first, they slumped to 76–7 against Pakistan before Beth Mooney swooped in for the rescue act.
There’s no right answer, then, but to go by recent history, Australia are ever so slightly more vulnerable when they chase. Maybe.
How to counter their extraordinary batting depth?
Australia’s batting depth has been a huge part of their blueprint for domination. But this World Cup has seen it at its most devastating form. Alana King’s half-century from No.10 was as vital as Mooney’s century in their recovery against Pakistan. Kim Garth scored 38 from No.9 against New Zealand. No one has more than one century from No.6 or lower in women’s ODIs, apart from Ash Gardner, who has three. Quite simply, top order wobbles are meaningless unless they’re followed through by routing the non-existent tail.
There are, however, a couple of minute cracks teams could look to exploit. Phoebe Litchfield’s back-to-back single-digit dismissals against England and South Africa came against balls which moved away from her, first from Lauren Bell and then Marizanne Kapp. She averages 17.78 against right-arm pace compared to her overall ODI average of 38.93. All three semi-finalists possess high class right-arm pacers – Bell and Kapp, and India’s Renuka Singh Thakur.
There’s also the question of their captain’s fitness. Healy has been essential to Australia’s knockout dominance, with centuries in both the semi-final and final of the 2022 tournament, as well as her two hundreds so far in this edition. Her absence would be significant, but not defining for Australia. They’ve already beaten both England and South Africa without her, and Georgia Voll already has an ODI hundred to her name against India. Still, Voll was undone twice by England’s spinners in the last two games she played against them, representing another very minor opening.
In reality, there’s no glaring weakness to exploit in the batting order, only a few tiny cracks to work into, the smallest flaws to capitalise on and force rare errors. If an early wobble comes as it briefly did against Pakistan and England, following that through and truly testing Australia’s ability to post a big first innings total after losing early wickets has the most potential.
Chasing it down
Australia’s bowling depth is nearly as frightening as their batting. Annabel Sutherland and Alana King have been the chief destroyers in the tournament so far. Sutherland’s five-for de-stablised India’s middle-order, while King’s record 7-18 ran through South Africa. They’re the lynchpins of the middle overs, drying up the runs and taking regular wickets to gut sides getting anywhere close to par.
Their new-ball attack, though, has been less dominant. Kim Garth, Megan Schutt and Darcie Brown have found it hard on run-scoring wickets to reign in the powerplay. In Indore, India were 58-0 after 10, while England were 55-1. This is where India could look to get ahead of the game in the semi-final. Their openers are the only ones to have outscored Australia in this tournament, although they will have a different pairing for the knockouts thanks to Pratika Rawal’s injury. However, India have also struggled at the death, collapsing from strong positions against both Australia and England.
Every semi-finalist, though, has a trump card they will hope comes good. Nat Sciver-Brunt averages more against Australia than anyone else, while Smriti Mandhana is the only player who matches her century count against them. In South Africa’s win over Australia last year, Marizanne Kapp scored 75 and took 3-12. Big games bring out the best in the best players, and there is no bigger game than a World Cup knockout against arguably cricket’s greatest ever side.
What’s the plan?
Essentially, play your perfect game, hold every catch, never let up on even the slightest of pressure, and stay in the game. Even after doing all of that, based on all the evidence, Australia will probably still win.
But part of being an elite athlete is believing that no opponent is unbeatable, and no challenge too big. That mentality gets tested to the limit against Australia, as in reality it’s completely illogical. To beat them you have to be perfect, and hope that they are imperfect, and maybe then, you might have a chance.
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