Sharjah, Oct 13: India lost to defending champions Australia by nine runs in their last group match to find themselves in a difficult position to qualify for the semifinals of the women's T20 World Cup, here on Sunday.

Chasing 152 for a win, India ended at 142 for 9 with captain Harmanpreet Kaur top-scoring with 54 not out off 47 balls. Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma chipped in with 29 and 20 respectively.

India ended their Group A campaign on four points after two wins and two losses.

Australia, who topped the group with all four wins, qualified for the semifinals while New Zealand (4 points) need a win against Pakistan on Monday to make it to the last-four stage.

Opting to bat, Australia were restricted to 151 for 8 with opener Grace Harris top-scoring with 40 off 41 balls. Stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath and Ellyse Perry chipped in with 32 each.

For India, Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma took two wickets apiece while Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav and Shreyanka Patil got one each.

Brief Scores:

Australia: 151 for 8 in 20 overs (Grace Harris 40; Renuka Singh 2/24, Deepti Sharma 2/28).

India: 142 for 9 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 54 not out; Annabel Sutherland 2/22, Sophie Molineux 2/32).

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Lucknow (PTI): Lucknow Super Giants pacer Mohsin Khan added another sordid chapter to Kolkata Knight Riders' batting woes, taking five wickets to restrict the three-time champions to a modest 155 for seven in their IPL match here on Sunday.

Mohsin’s 5 for 23, a personal best for the left-arm pacer in this format, tore apart an already struggling KKR batting unit, as he snaffled the cream wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Tim Seifert, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell and Anukul Roy.

Rinku Singh (83 not out, 51 balls) made a well-paced fifty and punished Mohammed Shami in the 19th over for 6, 4, 4 and the smoked four sixes in a row against spinner Digvesh Rathi as KKR made 43 runs in the last two overs to go past the 150-run mark.

But his fifty remained a lone act, as Mohsin firmly stood in the limelight.

His bowling ethos were rooted in simple tactics — bang the ball into the black soil pitch to gain bounce or use cutters at various pace to keep the batters guessing.

Mohsin, who started the night with a wicket maiden, showed his variety across two dismissals.

He followed Rahane with a fuller ball as the batter tried to go over the covers, but the ball’s trajectory forced the KKR skipper to just slice the ball up for a simple catch for Aiden Markram.

The 27-year-old stayed calm when Green, who looked comfortable out there while smashing George Linde for two successive sixes, slammed him for a huge maximum.

Two balls later, Mohsin dug one short, challenging Green (34) to go for the pull and the Australian all-rounder took the bait.

The into-the-body angle worked again as Green could only sky the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

Green’s ouster also ended a fifth wicket alliance worth 42 with Rinku Singh.

Bizarre dismissal of Raghuvanshi

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If the existing turmoil was not enough, KKR had to bear the dejection of seeing Angkrish Raghuvanshi getting dismissed obstructing the field.

On the final ball of the fifth over from Prince Yadav, Raghuvanshi nudged one towards mid-on and set off for a single, only to be rejected by Green.

Raghuvanshi put in a dive to save himself but he came in the line of the throw from Shami.

Subsequently, third umpire Rohit Pandit accepted LSG’s appeal and decided that the batter’s turning radius was more than required, eventually resulting in the batter’s dismissal in a rare manner.