2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup: India’s semi-final dreams on edge ahead of England clash in Indore
India hoping to bounce back from consecutive defeats
The 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup has already delivered some spectacular matches, perhaps none more so than Australia’s incredible chase against India in Visakhapatnam last Sunday, which secured the defending champions’ spot in the semi-finals.
Batting first, the Women in Blue looked as though they were in the driver’s seat when Smriti Mandhana (80 runs off 66 balls) and Pratika Rawal (75 runs off 96 balls) steered their side to a mammoth total of 330 in 48.5 overs.
However, despite the massive task at hand, Australia, led by their captain Alyssa Healy, who scored a sensational 142 runs off just 107 deliveries, managed to chase down the target with an over to spare, marking the highest run chase in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
That result was India’s second defeat in a row after falling to South Africa in their third match in the competition, and with four points in as many games, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage have been tossed into uncertainty.
Up first, Kaur and co will meet the Lionesses at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Sunday, and you can check out all of the key insights and player stats by referring to our India Women vs. England Women prediction ahead of the toss.
With three games left to play in the group stage, India have to win at least two to secure a top-four finish, but it will not be an easy task, with New Zealand as well as the plucky Bangladesh to come after their clash against England.
England's blushes spared against Pakistan in Colombo
England are firmly installed as the team expected to pose the greatest threat to Australia for this year’s World Cup title, according to the best online betting sites, but they come into this match after an underwhelming display against Pakistan earlier in the week.
The Lionesses were put in to bat after losing the toss and were restricted to just 133/9 in the 31-over match, as Fatima Sana bagged 4/27 for the Women in Green. Charlie Dean was the only England batter to score above 20 runs.
Pakistan made a strong start to their chase, scoring 34/0 inside the first seven overs and looked to be cruising to victory, but England’s blushes were spared when the heavens opened and forced the game to be called off as a no result.
With that, Nat Sciver-Brunt’s side moved to seven points in four games and remained unbeaten. A victory here will secure the Lionesses' spot in the semis, but that is far from guaranteed, with their last four matches against India being split, two wins apiece.
