India and Australia are pulling clear of Group 1, split only by net run rate
Both unbeaten, both winning by a distance, and on a collision course for a June 28 meeting that already looks like a group decider. After two rounds, India and Australia have left the rest of Group 1 behind.
Jun 18, 2026
Two games in, the Women’s T20 World Cup has already sorted Group 1 into a two-team conversation. India and Australia have each won twice, each won big, and pulled clear of everyone else. The only thing separating them at the top is a sliver of net run rate, and that gap is so thin it barely counts as a gap at all.
India sit top, Australia a fraction behind, and the net run rate between them is so small it is almost a rounding error. Both have four points. South Africa and Bangladesh trail on two, Pakistan and the Netherlands have none. Three rounds of group cricket remain, but the early evidence says the race to top the group is going to be a private duel.
Both are winning in landslides
The reason the net run rate is so high is that neither side has been remotely troubled. India put 209 for 5 on the board against the Netherlands and then bowled them out for 114, a 95-run hammering, after opening their campaign with a 64-run win over Pakistan. Australia have been every bit as ruthless: they held Bangladesh to 77 and knocked off the runs for the loss of a single wicket, and beat South Africa by 65 in their opener. When the margins are that wide, the decimal points pile up fast.
That matters, because in a group this top-heavy net run rate could end up deciding seeding if either side ever drops a point. Right now it is a cushion. A rain-shortened chase or one total defended on a sticky pitch, and it becomes a lifeline.
Why finishing first is worth fighting for
The top two in each group go through to the semi-finals on June 30 and July 2, so both India and Australia look comfortably bound for the last four already. The fight is over which of them finishes first. The group winner is drawn against the runner-up of the other group in the semis, while the runner-up draws the group winner from across the draw.
With England unbeaten and bossing Group 2, that detail has teeth. Finish top of Group 1 and you most likely avoid England until the final. Finish second and you could run into them in the semi. This is not a dead-rubber scrap for bragging rights. It shapes the road to Lord’s.
The tests before the showdown
Neither side can coast there yet. India’s next assignment is South Africa at Old Trafford on June 21, against a team that just found some belief by scrapping to a two-wicket win over Pakistan for their first points of the tournament. Australia face the Netherlands on June 20. On form, both should keep the winning run going, which would set up the fixture this group has been pointing at from the start: India against Australia on June 28, almost certainly with top spot on the line.
It is the match every Indian fan has had circled. Harmanpreet Kaur’s side have looked the most assured India have been at a World Cup in years, and Australia are, as ever, the standard everyone else is measured against. Get to June 28 with both records intact, and the last round of Group 1 turns into a straight shootout for first. Until then, the job for both is simple and slightly ruthless: keep winning, and keep winning by plenty.