India lose to Australia as records tumble

The Indian cricket team lost to defending champions Australia by three wickets in its fourth match of the Women's ODI World Cup 2025 at the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Batting first, India posted 330/10 on the board - their highest score in the Women’s World Cup to date, surpassing the previous record of 317/8 against the West Indies from 2022.

Australia hit back with the highest successful run chase in the format’s history, eclipsing Sri Lanka’s feat of hunting down 302 against South Africa from last year.

This was India’s second successive defeat at the World Cup, having also lost to South Africa at the same venue on Thursday. India are now third in the standings with four points from four matches.

Smriti Mandhana (80 off 66 balls) was India’s top-scorer, while Shree Charani (3/41) was their best bowler. Alyssa Healy (142 off 107 balls) was the Australian cricket team’s top-scorer and Annabel Sutherland was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 5/40.

Chasing 331 to win, Australia’s openers began in style with both skipper Alyssa Healy and Phoebe Litchfield coming out all guns blazing.

India got the breakthrough in the 12th over after Phoebe Litchfield was dismissed by Shree Charani.

Ellyse Perry joined Healy in the middle and strung together a 68-run before she had to retire hurt due to suspected cramp.

Beth Mooney was the next batter in but her brief stay at the crease came to an end in the 27th over after Jemimah Rodrigues took a stunning catch off Deepti Sharma’s bowling.

New batter Annabel Sutherland also departed in the very next over after being bowled by Shree Charani as India threatened to stage a fightback.

However, set batter Alyssa Healy was still going strong at the other end and brought up her century off just 84 balls in the 31st over.

Ashleigh Gardner played a supporting role for her skipper and put together a 95-run stand before the dismissal of Alyssa Healy, who fell after Sneh Rana took another quality catch off Shree Charani’s bowling to leave Australia with 66 to get from the last 11 overs.

Tahlia McGrath struck three fours before being adjudged LBW, while Ashleigh Gardner was bowled by Amanjot Kaur in the 44th over, leaving Australia to get 32 from the last six overs.

Ellyse Perry then returned to the middle after Gardner’s dismissal and along with another new batter Kim Garth managed to get Australia over the line.

Earlier, openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal (75 off 96 balls) gave India a solid start with a 155-run partnership for the first wicket.

Smriti Mandhana was the first to depart after being dismissed by Sophie Molineux in the 25th over. Mandhana’s knock saw her become the youngest and quickest to reach 5000 runs in Women’s ODIs.

Her opening partner Pratika Rawal perished six overs later with India on 192/2. India’s middle order batters all got starts but failed to capitalise, leaving the hosts at 309/6 by the 45th over.

Annabel Sutherland led the Australian fightback as India’s last four wickets fell for a mere 21 runs, bundling out the hosts for 330 in 48.5 overs. It was also the first instance of a team scoring 300-plus against Australia in the Women’s 50-over World Cup.

However, their collapse from 192/1 at the 30-over mark to 330 all out in the 49th over gave the Australians an opening to complete a successful run chase.

India will take on England in their next World Cup match on Sunday.

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