3 reasons why India could beat Australia in AUS vs IND Women's World Cup 2025 semifinal

Team India and Australia will do battle in the ICC Women's World Cup 2025 semifinal in Navi Mumbai on Thursday, October 30. The contest promises to be the ultimate David and Goliath clash between two teams at the opposite ends of World Cup history.

The Women in Blue have occasionally wilted under the pressure of playing in front of their home fans thus far in the tournament. Harmanpreet Kaur's side won only half of their six completed matches in the league stage, resulting in them barely sneaking into the semifinal. Meanwhile, the Aussies have been at their relentless best, winning all six of their completed games to finish atop the points table.

Further worrying for the Indians is the fact that the Women in Yellow often produce their best cricket in the knockout stages. The seven-time world champions also defeated Team India in their group stage meeting at Visakhapatnam.

Yet, even with most odds seemingly stacked against them, India has reasons to believe that an upset win over Australia is more than possible, taking them a step closer to their elusive World Cup title.

On that note, let us look at the three key reasons Team India could pull off a victory over Australia in the 2025 World Cup semifinal.

#1 Team India has dominated for long periods in their recent ODI meetings against Australia

As one-sided as the India-Australia rivalry has been in ODIs in terms of results overall and over the past few years, the Women in Blue can take confidence from the most recent ODI meetings between the sides. India recently broke Australia's eight-game ODI winning streak against them in the home series before the ongoing World Cup.

While Australia has won three out of the four ODIs against India over the past month, the latter has dominated extended periods of even the games they lost. The first ODI of the recent three-match series in India saw the hosts score an impressive 281/7 in their 50 overs.

However, the Indian bowlers and fielders endured a poor performance, resulting in the Aussies comfortably completing the run chase in the 45th over. In the following outing (second ODI), India outplayed Australia from start to finish in a 102-run victory.

After scoring a massive 292, India bowled the daunting Aussie batting lineup out for 190 in 40.5 overs to even the series at 1-1. The series decider was another seesaw battle between the sides despite the visitors posting a humongous 412 on the board.

Yet, in response, Team India gave the Aussies a huge scare by scoring 369 and being 206/2 in 20 overs at one stage, before ultimately going down. Even the league stage meeting between the teams went back and forth for most of the contest.

In a high-pressure contest, the hosts amassed an incredible 330 batting first. However, the bowlers struggled once again for consistency, resulting in Australia hunting down the target in 49 overs with three wickets in hand.

With a win in their last three head-to-heads and the other two going down to the wire, India can more than believe that they are in with a massive shout at dethroning the Aussie juggernaut in the semifinal.

#2 India must believe in the 'History repeats itself' philosophy

India Women have historically struggled to cope with the Aussie dominance in most of the matches that matter. Yet, history isn't entirely against the Women in Blue pulling off a colossal upset in the semifinal of an ODI World Cup.

Incidentally, the last time the two teams met in an ODI World Cup semifinal, it was India that emerged victorious in a stunner at the County Ground in Derby. Like the ongoing tournament, India suffered a stinging defeat to the Aussies in the league stage before their meeting in the final four.

However, come the semifinal, a confident Indian outfit derailed the much-fancied Australians, thanks to an all-time epic 115-ball 171 by Harmanpreet Kaur. The right-hander's knock helped India score a formidable 281/4 in their 42 overs in a rain-affected contest.

Byoyed by Harmanpreet's heroics, the Indian bowlers produced an inspired effort to bowl the then-defending champions out for 245 to advance to the final.

The stars are aligned almost identically for India to do another number on the now-defending champions, Australia, with Harmanpreet now leading them as captain. If ever the time was right for Indian fans to pray for the 'History repeats itself' philosophy to ring true, it must be today.

#3 Team India could not have asked for a better venue to rattle the Aussie juggernaut

Team India's recent defeats to Australia in ODIs have come in batter-friendly conditions, where the latter's batting depth has eventually prevailed. Yet, the hosts could not have picked a better venue for their semifinal clash than the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

The three matches thus far at the venue have seen several low totals with spinners dominating proceedings. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh combined to score only 397 runs for the fall of 19 wickets in a low-scoring thriller in the first game in Navi Mumbai.

Team India enjoyed a perfect outing in the second match of the tournament at the venue against New Zealand. After scoring 340 with the bat, the Indian bowlers produced an excellent all-round performance to win by 53 runs.

The most recent outing at the venue saw the Indian spinners, Shree Charani and Radha Yadav, combine for figures of 5/53 to run riot over Bangladesh. The hosts restricted Bangladesh to a dismal 119/9 in 27 overs and raced to 57/0 in the ninth over before the weather played spoilsport.

Considering the dominant Indian batting, even against Australia in recent ODIs, the surface offering much for the bowlers, especially the spinners, provides India their best opportunity to thwart the defending champions in the marquee clash.

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Edited by Venkatesh Ravichandran