Indian women's cricket team defeated New Zealand by 186 runs on Saturday in their World Cup semi-final on the basis of their all-round performance, where they will face Australia.

India challenged New Zealand's 266 runs with the help of first captain Mithali Raj (109) first and then finished the Kiwi women's players to score 79 runs in 25.3 overs thanks to the best of their bowlers.

Apart from Amy Saidarweight (26), no other batswoman could stand ahead of Indian bowlers. The Kiwi team, who lost skipper Suji Bates (1) on five runs, lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually got stacked on 79 runs.

Rajeshwari Gaikwad took 5 wickets for 15 runs from India. Deepti Sharma got two wickets. Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav and Jhulan Goswami also took one wicket each.

Earlier, when India got the invitation for batting, losing seven wickets in the 50 overs scored 265 runs.

This is Mithali's first in this World Cup and total sixth century. She played 123 balls with 11 fours in the innings. Apart from them, Harmanpreet Kaur (60) and Veda Krishnamurthy strengthened the team while playing in the fast bowlers' innings of 70 in 43 balls.

India did not start well. They lost their two crucial wickets on 21 runs. Poonam Raut, who scored a century against Australia in the last match, was out on four of personal score. At the same time, opener Smriti Mandhana failed once and could only make 13 runs.

The first semi-final will be between India and Australia, while South Africa will face England in the second semi-final. First match will be in Derby and second match will be in Tanton.

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