Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025: The numbers behind Australia’s brilliance and how India, England and South Africa compare

Despite losing three group stage matches, India – their semi-final opponent – still feels they are the team most likely to beat, having scored 330 runs against them in select group stage matches, but have proven at least 20 points.

They are also the latest team to defeat Australia in an ODI, in a pre-World Cup series which Healy’s side won 2-1, and they will likely have a home crowd in their favour.

It makes for an interesting batting match. Likewise, India have a very strong opening partnership in Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal, who average 82.8, but the latter’s participation could be in doubt for the semi-final after she suffered a knee and ankle injury in the field against Bangladesh.

They also have strong batting depth but that cost them in the bowling department, which could be the difference. India, who have fewer all-rounders, mostly opted for an extra batsman and five bowlers, but that saw Australia chase down 330 with relative ease, so they are still looking for the right balance with their playing XI.

For England, they outperform their opponents with the ball at both the power play and the death overs, while their spin attack has taken the second-most wickets (37) and has the second-best average (19.2).

However, they lag well behind the bat with strike rates of 85.8 and 74 against pace and spin respectively – and struggle particularly in the middle where they score 4.55 runs per over at an average of 34.

Meanwhile, South Africa has the best bowling record in terms of economy, which could be a good competition given Australia’s top-order strength.

They also have by far the best batting record between the overs of 41-50, thanks to the power of lower-order Nadine de Klerk’s batting in clutch chases against India and Bangladesh. They average 53 in overs of 41-50 and the next best is 31.3 for Australia.

However, the big element of the challenge of facing Australia cannot be expressed in statistics, it comes from the mental game.

Whoever beats them knows they have to perform almost flawlessly under the highest pressure, and even then they may still be counting on Australia to make a few mistakes of their own.

Speaking of which, Australia’s fielding errors are rare – they get nearly 77% of their catches, which ranks them second in the tournament.

They are behind England who, after much criticism over their standards of play and fitness in recent years, top the catching charts with an efficiency of almost 83%.