India's hopes of making the Women's Twenty20 World Cup summit clash went up in smoke after suffering a humiliating 52-run defeat against strong contenders New Zealand in the first semifinal in Nottingham on Thursday. Kiwi skipper Aimee Watkins was the star performer as she led from front with a blistering unbeaten 89 to steer her side to a challenging 145 for five after opting to bat. Watkins' 58-ball knock was also the highest individual score of the tournament so far. The Indians buckled under pressure of a daunting target and after a pathetic batting display could manage just 93 for nine in their quota of 20 overs. Sian Ruck (2/18) and Amy Satterthwaite (2/18) shared four wickets between them in India's horrid batting collapse. Amita Sharma (24) and Mithali Raj (20),who were two of the three batters to reach double digit scores,could manage to hang around for some time but could not build on the starts. England will take on Australia in the second semi-final at the Oval in London on Friday. India made a shaky start at Poonam Raut (5) fell cheaply when she mistimed an on-drive only to be caught at square leg. Anjum Chopra (15) and Mithali had an onerous responsibility to score quickly but the duo consumed too many balls for their runs,which resulted in the required run-rate shooting up. The Indian camp was in for a double shock as Chopra and Harmanpreet Kaur (0) were dismissed off successive balls. Chopra's attempted pull off Kate Pulford went high in the air and Bates took a diving catch,running from midwicket. Left-armer Sian Ruck,who was getting good swing,then bowled Kaur in the first ball of the eighth over,adding to the Indians woes. Reema Malhotra (4) ran herself out and it required a Herculean effort from there to overhaul the daunting target as India huffed and puffed to 42 for four in 10 overs. India's hope were hanging on a slender thread but that too ended when Raj went for a big shot off Satterthwaite and ended up giving a catch at long-on. It was all over for India as other batters just delayed the inevitable. Amita Sharma sizzled for a while with her 24-run cameo which included two fours and a six but it was too late by then. Earlier,the Kiwi top-order struggled but Watkins batted through the innings to shape it single handedly. The left-handed Watkins faced just 58 balls and struck 10 fours and two sixes,second coming off the last ball of the innings,in her outstanding knock. For India,Amita was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets at the expense of just 21 runs.
