(Cricket news) Indian women's team defeated Barbados by 100 runs in a do or die game to book their place in the Commonwealth Games semi finals. The women in blue will now take on either England or New Zealand in the next match. It was a dominant performance by team India which is a very good sign going into the medal matches. Barbados won the toss and elected to bat first. Harmanpreet Kaur announced two changes as Taniya Bhatia and Pooja Vastrakar were brought in for Yastika Bhatia and S. Meghna. The changes were surprising because Yastika had just about started keeping wickets while Taniya Bhatia hasn't performed well in T20Is for a while. Vastrakar's inclusion after she passed fit was a no-brainer as her all-round brilliance was missed by India.

Batting first India reached a total of 162/4 in 20 overs. Jemimah Rodrigues anchored the innings with an unbeaten 56 off 46 balls. She came into bat at number 3 and hit 6 fours and 1 six in her stellar innings. Shafali Verma gave India a good start with her 26 ball 43 while Deepti Sharma gave the finishing touch by scoring 34 off 28 balls. Jemimah is slowly getting back to her peak after the recent disappointment of being dropped from the World Cup. India batted well throughout the innings and handled situations well. India's two star batters Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet failed to fire but the team still managed to hold strong which is an incredible sign. 

Chasing 163, Barbados never looked up for it. They were dismantled by Renuka Singh Thakur's incredible spell of 4/10. This was Thakur's 2nd four wicket haul of the tournament with the first one coming against Australia. She is proving to be an incredible asset to this Indian side especially in the shortest format. Meghna Singh, Harmanpreet Kaur, Radha Yadav and Sneh Rana all picked up a wicket each as Barbados fell 100 runs short. India will take this confidence into the knockouts. The only match that they lost was against World Champions Australia and that too after putting in a good performance. India will be aiming for gold and it is pretty much in the realm of possibility.

Also read: Sublime Suryakumar Yadav leads India to 7 wicket victory over West Indies