How Australia flipped the script and sent India crashing out: Ash Gardner reveals

Ash Gardner revealed how Australia turned the pressure back on India to knock them out of the Women’s T20 World Cup. On Sunday, June 28, with the Aussies secured their place in the semi-finals with a six-wicket win over India at Lord’s Cricket Ground. However, the six-time champions were made to work hard in the chase.

Australia needed 99 runs from the last 10 overs to reach 171, with the required run rate climbing to 10.22 after 11 overs. The requirement stayed over 10 for most of the chase before Australia knocked it down under a run-a-ball with three overs remaining, thanks to a counter-attacking partnership between Gardner and Ellyse Perry.

India vs Australia Women’s World Cup T20: Update | Scorecard

‘RESPECT GOOD BALLS, PICK BOWLERS TO ATTACK’

Speaking ahead of the semi-final against the West Indies, Gardner said Australia’s chase was built on putting the bowlers under pressure from the start, targeting favorable matchups and maintaining the required scoring rate by splitting the innings into smaller phases.

Gardner, who smashed a 29-ball 53, added that the team trusted its batting depth, alternating its strike against good deliveries and taking advantage of scoring opportunities to stay on top.

“In T20 cricket, we focus on taking things apart rather than thinking about the big picture. As a bowler, if you get hit on the boundary in the first couple of balls, you have to win the over and that can be quite tricky at times.

From a hitting standpoint, it’s about getting the pitcher under pressure right away and then using the rest of the at-bat to make it really big,” Gardner said in a pregame press conference.

“When we had no option but to score around 10 overs, we knew exactly what we had to do. It was about choosing the right ends to target, choosing bowlers to attack, respecting the good balls in the swing of the strike and building on the platform set by the batsmen in front of us. From there it was about playing to our strengths, knowing we had so much firepower behind us.”

With Australia shooting 68 for 3, Gardner and Ellyse Perry stitched together a match-defining 100-run partnership for the fourth wicket from just 57 balls to put the six-time champions firmly in control. Shree Charani eventually dismissed Perry for 56 but by then the writing was on the wall for India.

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Issued by:

sabyasachi chowdhury

Published on:

29 Jun 2026 19:28 IST