Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur break Australian monopoly with record-breaking Women's World Cup stand

Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur broke the Australian monopoly in the ICC Women's World Cup knockouts with a record-breaking 167-run stand against Australia in the all-important semifinal on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Given a mammoth target of 339 runs, the Indians lost openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma early.

Joining hands in the 10th over, Harmanpreet and Jemimah revived India out of the hole with a partnership of a lifetime. Not trying to many things, both Harmanpreet and Jemimah played sensibly, finding the gaps and kept rotating the strike.

In the process, the stand between Harmanpreet and Jemimah was the sixth 150-plus partnership in the knockouts of the tournament's history. Interestingly, the previous five belonged to Australia with the 155-stand between Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield earlier on the day.

The 167-run stand between Harmanpreet and Jemimah was also the highest against Australia in a World Cup game, surpassing a 157-run partnership between Mithali Raj and Punam Raut in 2017.

Before Harmanpreet and Jemimah, the highest partnerships for India in any ICC Women's World Cup knockout game was 137 between Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma, also against Australia in a semifinal of the 2017 edition in England.

India set South African date in final

While Harmanpreet missed on a well-deserved hundred by 11 runs, Jemimah stayed till the end as India beat Australia by five wickets with more than an over to spare. Rodrigues anchored the innings brilliantly with an unbeaten 127 off 134 balls, while skipper Harmanpreet made a crucial 89 off 88 deliveries.

Deepti Sharma (24) and Richa Ghosh (26) also chipped in with handy contributions to set a final date with South Africa. The same venue will host the India vs South Africa final on Sunday. It was India's third entry in the final after runners-up finishes in 2005 and 2017.