Skippers Karen Rolton and Charlotte Edwards set up a mouth-watering England v Australia semi-final in the ICC Women's World Twenty20 2009 tournament on Tuesday with mirror-image performances in their final group matches at Taunton.

Both made 43, Rolton to set up Australia's 24-run win over South Africa in Group A and Edwards to anchor England to a 63-run success against Pakistan in Group B. The sides meet at The Oval on Friday as the first part of a double-header with the men's semi-final.

It was also a day for left-arm spinners, with England's Holly Colvin taking 3-18 and Australia's Shelley Nitschke 4-21.

Unbeaten England, though, ended the day with serious concerns after its middle order, highlighted by its rivals as

After Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team was knocked out on Sunday night, Mithali Raj made sure an India team made it through to the semi-finals of the ICC World Twenty20 after her fellow batters made heavy weather of the chase against Sri Lanka in a low-scoring encounter at Taunton on Monday.

Sri Lanka reached 94-5 from a rain-reduced 18 overs, but India was stumbling in reply before player of the match Mithali stroked an assured 32 not out to seal the five-wicket win. The Lankans started off stodgily on a damp wicket, reaching only 34-3 f

Pakistan recorded the 'perfect win' against Ireland on Monday, as they not only picked up the two points that took them to the top of the Group F leaderboard, but won handsomely by 39 runs, giving them a healthy net run rate of +1.2, thereby ensuring that one out of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but not both can potentially finish above them when the two sides clash on Tuesday.

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first, putting on a competitive score of 159 on the board. Their batsmen looked good in patches, but didn't really run away with the game at any stage. Boyd Rankin finally came good for Ireland bowling a miserly first spell conceding just 7 runs from 3 overs. However, he did not pick up any wickets, and the runs flowed

Being an Indian journalist writing a report following a match that India loses can be quite a heart-wrenching task, especially when the result means that the side that you so religiously support is knocked out of the tournament. Generally you start by blaming the cricket board for their team selection, follow it up with ridiculing the management for their decision making, move on to the captain and nitpick with field placings, move on to senior players and find fault in their performance and finally settle on the youngsters and the amount of load that was unduly placed on their shoulders.

Before we do all that (and yes  we will), one needs to paint a fair picture of the result. England wer

The world's best batswoman Claire Taylor produced a match-winning master class as England hammered Sri Lanka at Â Taunton on Sunday to book a place in the semi-finals of the ICC Women's World Twenty20 2009.

She made 75 not out during the World Cup holder's innings of 140-7 before Sri Lanka, hemmed in by a tigerish England fielding display, limped to 69-8 and a 71-run defeat.

The tournament host, with two wins out of two, will top Group B if it beats Pakistan on Tuesday, with a clash against Australia looming in the next round. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will battle it out with India for the other semi-final slot when the Asian rivals meet on Monday.

England, opting to bat against Sri Lanka in front of a hugely enthusiastic crowd

Olympic athlete Suzie Bates bludgeoned West Indies into submission as New Zealand powered towards the semi-finals in the ICC Women's Twenty20 2009 tournament on Saturday.

Bates, who went to the Beijing Games with New Zealand's basketball squad, hammered 60 off 39 balls, including 11 fours out of a total of 158-6 at Taunton before the White Ferns cruised home by 52 runs. Fellow opener Lucy Doolan hit 41 and later took 3-16 with her off spin.

New Zealand, though, which crushed highly fancied Australia by nine wickets in its Group A opener, lost its rhyt

Pakistan completely annihilated the New Zealand batting line-up bowling the Kiwis out for just 99 runs in the 19th over thanks predominantly to a magical spell of 5 wickets for 6 runs from Man of the match Umar Gul. They then chased down the target in a ball over 13 overs to record a thumping victory.

This result means that Pakistan are now favourites alongside Sri Lanka to qualify from Group F, and it would need a run of unlikely results in other matches and possibly a poor outing against minnows Ireland to prevent them from reaching the Final 4.

Proceedings started brightly for the Black Caps as skipp