Women Cricket World Cup: Knight and Sciver-Brunt star as England edges India, enters semis

For 48 overs of the chase within the Women’s World Cup fixture on the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Sunday (October 19, 2025), India had each purpose to imagine the 2 factors belonged in its kitty. Chasing 289, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur stitched a 125-run stand, after which Deepti Sharma joined forces with the previous to arrange what regarded like a cushty victory.

But someplace, all of it went horribly mistaken.

Smriti and Deepti performed drained aerial pictures, aiming to keep up the excessive power of the chase, to no avail.

India’s saviours in opposition to Sri Lanka — Amanjot Kar and Sneh Rana — couldn’t replicate their heroics, with the Indian dugout and Indore surprised to silence within the matter of 12 deliveries.

Persistence pays off

Nat Sciver-Brunt and Co. by no means misplaced hope, and their persistence was rewarded with a slim four-run victory and a spot within the semifinals alongside Australia and South Africa.

Match-ups didn’t work, the pitch didn’t produce prodigious flip, and the English line-up was examined to its limits, however this unit scrambled its solution to a hard-fought win.

She may not be the captain anymore, however but once more, Heather Knight led from the entrance to set the platform for England with a scintillating hundred, her third within the format.

She mixed along with her successor Sciver-Brunt, the duo’s 113-run stand forming the spine of the English essay. India was valiant within the area, taking some stellar catches within the circle.

Unfazed

But Knight remained unfazed and introduced up her third ODI ton, her celebration extra a sigh of aid. In the tip, lax operating was her undoing, her dismissal first drawing loud cheers after which a standing ovation from the partisan crowd.

Much like India’s would later, the decrease middle-order folded and England ceded management. But luck favoured a courageous English aspect because it snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat.

It was the primary time since 1982 that India had misplaced three matches in a row within the mega occasion.

The residence aspect subsequent meets New Zealand in a digital quarterfinal on Thursday (October 16).