Women's T20 WC: India falls short to Australia despite a valiant effort -Talking points

Indian women's cricket team conceded their second defeat of the tournament in their final group match where they lost by nine runs against Australia at Sharjah, UAE on Sunday.

Indian bowlers had a good start to the innings but they failed to capitalize on that and Australia posted a 150+ target which despite a Valient effort of Harmanpret Kaur proved too much for the team.

Here are the major talking points from the game:

# Is there still a chance

Indian team group stage action at the World Cup is over and their chances of further qualification are also almost over.

However, they still had a very slim mathematical chance of their semifinal progression but their fate is no more in their hands and will be decided by the result of the final match of Group A between Pakistan and New Zealand.

A win in that match will give New Zealand the ticket to the semifinal but if somehow they concede the match, then the Indian team will progress further as they have a better run rate than New Zealand.

However, the Pakistani team is not in good form in this World Cup, and it's highly unrealistic that they will beat the in-form Kiwi side.

# Fails to build upon early momentum

India had a brilliant start to the game, indulging two quick wickets of explosive batters Beth Mooney and Georgia Wareham. Renuka Singh took both the wickets and gave an ideal start to her team.

But, the Indian team failed to build up on that momentum and allowed Grace Harris and Tahlia Macgrath to produce an outstanding 62-run partnership for the third wicket, which completely shifted the momentum.

Then, the finishers Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield worked on that momentum shift to give their team a fiery end to post a total of 150+ on a slowish Sharjah wicket.

# Harmanpreet's effort goes in vain

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur lived up to her name as a big match player and scored a back-to-back half-century but one more time she couldn't help her team in crossing the finish line.

As there was no support from the other end, Harmanpreet's valuable effort went in vain. She came in to bat after a poor start to the Indian innings where they lost three important wickets in the first seven overs.

She along with Deepti Sharma tried to solidify the situation for the team and build a good 63-run partnership but when the time came to pull on the next gear India lost two more wickets of Deepti Sharma and Richa Singh.

# Brilliant final over from Sutherland

The Indian team was in the match till the final over as they needed 14 runs to win the match and the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was still on the crease after completing her half-century.

But, the all-rounder Annabel Sutherland showed her class and bowled tight lines to enforce four wickets in that same over including two of them on her own bowling while the two wickets went down on run-out.

India scored only 4 runs in that over and lost what was a must-win encounter. This defeat has now most probably ended their journey in the tournament in the group stage.