India's Women's T20WC Semifinal Hopes Dwindle After Crushing Defeat by New Zealand: Strategies for Harmapreet and Team to Bounce Back

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur had high praise for the current Indian T20I team, believing it to be the best they have ever had. She was confident that they could finally bring home a world title in women's cricket after a long drought. Despite her optimism, India failed to show up in the crucial match. Their performance with both bat and ball was lackluster, leaving fans disappointed and the team with a bitter defeat.

New Zealand were on the money from ball one, after opting to bat first in Dubai. The openers got the team off to an aggressive start, before captain Devine carried the momentum in the slog overs with her unbeaten knock of 57 which helped New Zealand set a 161-run target.

The India batters then looked clueless against the New Zealand attack as none of the batters fired , with the Women in Blue barely managing to cross the 100-run mark. They were eventually folded for just 102 with an over to spare as the White Ferns scripted an emphatic 58-run win against India.

India found themselves in the group of death in the Women's T20 World Cup, alongside defending champions Australia, arch-rivals Pakistan, New Zealand and reigning Asian champions Sri Lanka. While India will fancy their chances against Pakistan, against whom they have lost just twice in T20 World Cup history, last being in 2016, and thrice overall in 15 encounters, and against Sri Lanka, despite their recent loss against the side in the Women's Asia Cup final in July, having lost just once in World Cup history, Australia and New Zealand were their only threats.

With New Zealand heading into the World Cup on the back of a poor run of show, India did look to try their luck, but were outperformed in all departments, en route to a heavy loss. Hence, if India do manage to defeat Pakistan and Sri Lanka in their Group A encounters, it only leaves Australia standing between them and a semifinal qualification. 

India have beaten Australia just twice in six T20 World Cup meetings, and seven times in all 33 T20I matches. 

Not only do India have to Pakistan and Sri Lanka by heavy margins, given that their net run rate now stands −2.632 after the loss against New Zealand, they will have to try their luck against the defending champions, whom they last beat in a T20 World Cup match in 2020.