[WATCH] Phoebe Litchfield achieves massive milestone with century during AUS-W vs IND-W Women’s World Cup 2025 semifinal

India met Australia during the second semifinal of the Women’s World Cup 2025 at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. Australia’s left-handed opening batter, Phoebe Litchfield, started with an aggressive approach inside the first 10 overs of the innings despite losing their captain and right-handed opener, Alyssa Healy, in the first few overs.

But Phoebe Litchfield was in a different mood with two successive boundaries in the eighth over of the innings. She squeezed Kranti Gaud over the infield before timing the right-arm pacer over the square region for another boundary. Australia managed 72 runs in the first 10 overs, which was their fourth-highest score in this period during the event.

Litchfield advanced down the track to smash Shree Charani for a boundary to celebrate her ninth fifty in Women’s ODIs. She smashed a fine six over the cover against the same bowler before celebrating her century in the blink of an eye with the boundary. That was her maiden century in the World Cup.

Watch: Phoebe Litchfield celebrates fastest Women’s World Cup knockout century in 77 balls

Litchfield becomes the third batter to celebrate centuries in ODI World Cup knockouts, along with Karen Rolton against India in the 2005 final in Centurion, while Healy notched up 170 and 129 against England and the West Indies, respectively, in the final and semifinal of the 2022 Women’s World Cup. She smacked Deepti Sharma for two successive sixes and took the aggressive approach with the bat.

Against India, the southpaw has now scored 627 runs in the 50-over format at an average of nearly 70 and a strike rate of 96.61 with two centuries and four half-centuries to her name. Her knock in this semifinal ended with 119 runs in just 93 balls, thanks to 17 boundaries and three sixes.

The knock was enough to give Australia a strong platform with the bat in the knockout clash. It’s also the fastest century in Women’s World Cup knockouts. Australia have raced their way to over 250 in 40 overs and looked set to get themselves beyond the 320-run mark.