India qualify for Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 semi-finals after beating New Zealand

The Indian cricket team sealed its spot in the semi-finals of the Women's ODI World Cup 2025 after beating New Zealand by 53 runs in their penultimate group game at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.

Defending champions Australia, South Africa and England have already confirmed their spots in the top four earlier.

The win also snaps India’s three-match losing streak, suffered at the hands of South Africa, Australia and England, in the tournament and keeps them fourth on the points table with six points from as many games.

The New Zealand cricket team and Sri Lanka - both on four points from six - can match India’s points tally if they win their final group games and Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. lose their final group match against Bangladesh on Sunday.

However, since wins take precedence over net run rate as a tiebreaker if teams end with equal points, India, with three, will finish over both New Zealand and Sri Lanka, who can have a maximum of two.

Sent in to bat first, India, riding on centuries from openers Smriti Mandhana (109 off 95 balls) and Pratika Rawal (122 off 134), posted 340/3 in 49 overs after rain cut their innings short.

With the target revised to 325 in 44 overs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method after further rain delays, New Zealand, playing a must-win game, managed 271/8 in their 44 overs.

Smriti Mandhana’s records

India’s innings saw records tumble as openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal put together a record 212-run stand for the first wicket.

It was the highest partnership for any wicket for India at Women's World Cups, eclipsing the previous record of 184 stitched together by Mandhana and Harmanpreet for the fourth wicket against West Indies in 2022.

Smriti scored her 14th century in ODIs in the match, bringing her tally within one of Australia’s Meg Lanning, who has the most hundreds in the format with 15.

The Indian ace also equalled Lanning’s record of most centuries in women’s international cricket - 17.

This was also her fifth century of the year, giving her the joint custody of the record for most ODI hundreds in a single calendar year alongside Tazmin Brits

Mandhana, who has now scored 5194 runs at the top of the order, also surpassed New Zealand’s Suzie Bates to break the record for most runs scored by an opening batter in women's ODI cricket.

Interestingly, it was Bates who dismissed Smriti in the match to break the record-breaking partnership.

Pratika Rawal also had her crack at the record books and became the joint-fastest to 1000 runs in women’s ODI cricket, equalling Lindsay Reeler’s record of 23 innings set in 1988.

This was also the seventh century stand between the duo in the format - the joint-most for India along with Mithali Raj and Punam Raut.

Even after Rawal was caught in deep midwicket off Amelia Kerr, India were at a good spot at 288/2. Jemimah Rodrigues, returning to the line-up after missing the England game, also gave a good account of herself with an unbeaten 76 off 55.

Though rain interruptions reduced the innings to 49 overs, India finished with 340/3 - their highest score ever in the Women’s ODI World Cup match, surpassing the previous best of 330 scored against Australia earlier in the tournament.

New Zealand came out to bat with the target revised to 325 in 44 overs after further rain delays and lost Bates for just 1 to Kranti Gaud.

Renuka Singh dismissed Georgia Plimmer and opposition captain Sophie Devine in successive overs to deepen the White Ferns’ woes. From 59/3, New Zealand’s chase never took off and ended 53 runs short.

Isabella Gaze and Brooke Halliday scored fighting half-centuries while Amelia Kerr struck 45 but could only delay the inevitable result.

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