India vs Australia, Women's T20 World Cup final: Head-to-head numbers, stats in line, team performance

After 22 gruelling matches over the last two weeks, Women's T20 World Cup 2020 comes full circle to where it started. Amid the glitz and glory, India and the defending champions Australia kicked off the seventh edition of the tournament in Sydney. 14 days later, the two teams gear up to face each other at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, this time for the coveted trophy. 

A rampaging run in the group stage and a persistent Sydney rain helped Harmanpreet Kaur's India reach their maiden Women's T20 World Cup semifinal on Thursday. India had their semifinal tie against England but as rain refused to relent on Thursday, match officials were forced to call off the game and the Women in Blue, by virtue of ICC's guidelines, reached the final. Australia, on the other hand, defeated South Africa by five runs in the rain-marred second semifinal on the same day and at the same venue. 

India will now be aiming for their maiden ICC trophy, let alone T20 World Cup title. This will be their third finale appearance at any ICC event after making it to the summit clash of the 50-over World Cup in 2005 and 2017. For Australia, a six-time finalist in World T20 and four-time winners, they will be looking to add another feather to their crammed hat. 

Head-to-head record:

Australia enjoy an overwhelming record against India, winning about 68 per cent of the T20I matches the two have played. However, either side share wins and defeats in the four matches they played in 2020. And India have won their last two matches against Australia in World T20 - a 17-run win in 2020 and a 48-run win in Providence - both in group stages. Overall, India have a 2-2 record against the Aussies in the tournament history. 

Australia, also have more experience than India in knockout stages of an ICC event. On 23 previous occasions in ICC events, Australia have won 21, losing one each in either format. In World T20, Australia won 9 of the total 10 knockout matches with their only defeat coming in 2009 semifinal. On the other hand, India have played 10 knockout matches across the two tournaments and won only three, one of which was aided by rain. 

Stats in line...

- Australia are looking for a record-extending fifth World T20 title, the most ever by any side, male or female. In fact, the men's team have never won a T20 title and has just one finale appearance (2010) to their name. The next beat team is the West Indies men's team with two titles (2012 and 2016). 

- Indian women's team are looking for their first ICC Trophy ever and will become only the fourth team to win the trophy after England (2009), Australia (2010, 2012, 2014 and 2018), and West Indies (2016). 

- Shafali Verma requires 48 runs more to become the leading run-getter for India in a single World T20 edition by surpassing Mithali Raj's 208 in 2014 tournament. With 161 runs in 4 matches at 40.25, she is presently the joint fourth highest-scorer in the 2020 tournament after Nat Sciver (202), Heather Knight (193), Beth Mooney (181) and is tied with Alysa Healy (161).

- Poonam Yadav stands a wicket away from being the highest wicket-taker for India in a single World T20 edition by surpassing D David who too had taken 9 wickets in 2010. The highest wicket-taker of the ongoing edition is, however, five behind the all-time highest of 13 by England's Anya Shrubsole who had achieved the feat in 2014. 

- Beth Mooney, Australia's highest run-getter in 2020 World T20 with 181 runs in five matches, needs 19 runs more to become the third from her nation to amass 200-plus runs in a single edition of the tournament and 76 runs to become the highest run-getter in a single edition for Australia. 

- Megan Schutt needs three more wickets to become the leading wicket-taker for Australia in any edition of the tournament and five more to become the overall topper. She will also be vying for the top wicket-taker's spot for the 2020 edition alongside Poonam. 

Team performance:

Australians have put on a far better show in the World Cup as far as batting is considered with four of their batswoman amassing 100-plus runs in the tournament as against India's one. The two openers, Alysa Healy and Beth Mooney have scored 161 and 181 runs at 32.20 and 45.25 respectively with two half-centuries each, which puts forth a combined effort of 49.63 per cent of Australia's total runs. 

For India, it has been a complete one-man army with the 16-year-old star providing all the impetus to the team's batting. The opener scored 161 runs in the tournament, which is 32.3 per cent of India's entire runs in the tournament. Averaging 40.25  with a blistering strike rate of 161, Shafali has been the heart and soul of India's batting throughout the four group matches. The next best contributor has been Jemimah Rodrigues with half as many runs as Shafali - 85 runs at 28.33 with a strike rate of 90.42. Off her 161 runs, Shafali scored 124 in the first six overs at a strike rate of 182.23. And in all those situations, India's predicted score stood roughly around 140-plus till the time she stayed at the crease and significantly dipped with her departure as the middle-order remained ineffective. 

Such has been the dominance of the Aussie openers that the first-wicket partnership has managed 237 runs, more than what India's four next batters after Shafali has managed. Indian opening pairs have, on the other hand, managed only 108 runs only with no fifty-plus stands.

Bowling has been India's core strength throughout this tournament with Poonam leading the charts with her tally of nine wickets. Four of India's bowlers have more than five wickets in this tournament - 7 for Shikha Pandey and five each for Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Radha Yadav. Not to forget, India managed to take all 10-wickets in a match once in this tournament which was against the hosts in the opener. On the other hand, Australia have only two bowlers with more than five wickets - Schutt (9) and Jess Jonassen (7). 

India also have a combined better average, economy rate and SR - 15.83, 5.94 and 15.9 respectively than that of Australia - 20.44, 6.37 and 19.2.