Women's World Cup: India elect to bat first

India skipper Mithali Raj won the toss and chose to bat first in their women's cricket World Cup semi-finals match against strong title contenders Australia here on Thursday.

The start of the match was delayed by almost three hours hours due to heavy rain and it has been reduced to a 42-overs-a-side contest.

Under the new stipulations, two bowlers can bowl nine overs, and three bowlers can bowl a maximum of eight overs. The first Powerplay will be of nine overs while the second will be four overs.

India have decided to field an unchanged line-up while experienced batter Meg Lanning returned to the playing XI for Australia.

Teams:

India: Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut, Mithali Raj (captain), Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.

Australia: Beth Mooney, Nicole Bolton, Meg Lanning (captain), Ellyse Perry, Elyse Villani, Alex Blackwell, Alyssa Healy (wicket-keeper), Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt, Kristen Beams.

--IANS

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