India bat against Australia in women´s semi-final

DERBY, United Kingdom: India captain Mithali Raj won the toss and elected to bat against Australia in the second semi-final of the Women´s World Cup at Derby on Thursday.

Rain had reduced this match to a 42 overs per side contest, with bad weather and a sodden outfield delaying the scheduled 10:30am (0930 GMT) start by more than two hours.

Both sides need to have the chance to face at least 20 overs per side in order to constitute a match, with a reserve day in place on Friday if a result cannot be achieved on Thursday.

India retained the side that beat New Zealand -- in what was a virtual quarter-final -- five days ago at the same Derby ground where they have won all four matches they´ve played at the venue in this tournament.

Australia captain and star batsman Meg Lanning, who was rested from the reigning champions´ last match against South Africa to manage a longstanding shoulder injury, returned in place of interim skipper Rachael Haynes in Australia´s only change.

The winner of Thursday´s match will play in the sell-out final at Lord´s on Sunday against tournament hosts England, who defeated South Africa by just two wickets in the first semi-final at Bristol on Thursday.

If rain means a result cannot be achieved on either Thursday or Friday, Australia -- who beat India by eight wickets at Bristol in the group phase -- will advance as a result of having won six matches this tournament compared to India´s five.

Teams

Australia: Beth Mooney, Nicole Bolton, Meg Lanning (capt), Ellyse Perry, Elyse Villani, Alex Blackwell, Alyssa Healy (wkt), Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt, Kristen Beams

India: Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Raut, Mithali Raj (capt), Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Sushma Verma (wkt), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.