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Australia sailed through to the T20 World Cup final, beating a hapless West Indies by eight wickets with seven overs to spare.

With Australia chasing 126, a 63-run partnership off 37 balls between Beth Mooney and Ash Gardner allowed them to win at a canter. Mooney struck her second half-century of the tournament, while Gardner was equally aggressive in an innings of 35 from 20 balls. Despite the less-than-ideal scheduling (2.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon in London), a crowd of more than 10,000 attended.

The six-time champions will face the winner of Thursday’s semi-final between England and South Africa in Sunday’s final. After another convincing performance, they will surely be huge favourites to take home a seventh title.

Their only concern will be whether Ellyse Perry, Australia’s leading run-scorer in the tournament, will be fit to play after she retired hurt in the seventh over of the chase with a quad concern. However, Perry was able to walk off the pitch unaided and Cricket Australia indicated she would have returned to bat if needed, suggesting the injury is unlikely to be a serious one.

Earlier, West Indies’ innings had been bookended by two useful partnerships – a 47-run opening stand between Hayley Matthews and Qiana Joseph, and an aggressive 42 off 27 balls between Deandra Dottin and Jannillea Glasgow at the death.

But in between a collapse of four wickets for 12 runs in 17 balls put paid to any hope of them setting a competitive total.

There had been question marks as to whether Dottin would bat at all, after she collapsed midway through the Australian anthem with an unknown illness and had to be carried off the pitch by two of her teammates. She was listed at No 5 but emerged from the dressing room only halfway through the innings when the scale of the collapse became apparent, making her way gingerly down the stairs to the dugout.

Finally, she entered the fray at No 8 in the 16th over. Four boundaries followed, with Glasgow providing impetus at the other end – but by then it was too late for the “World Boss” Dottin to make enough of a difference.

In reply, West Indies chose to open the bowling with Chinelle Henry, the vice-captain, who has herself been struggling with an injury sustained pre-tournament. Henry did not train at the Oval on Monday, but made a breakthrough in the match by outwitting Georgia Voll with an off-cutter which took out her middle stump.

An initial flurry of boundaries from Voll and Mooney, though, had completely removed any sense of scoreboard pressure and although Matthews had a successful review of a not-out leg-before decision to see off Phoebe Litchfield, Mooney and Gardner saw Australia home with ease.

Matthews had talked a good talk on the eve of the semi-final, saying her side could play “fearless” cricket in a match they were never expected to win. But a 35-run powerplay and an innings that contained 55 dots rather belied that rhetoric.

Matthews played the shot of the day off the very first ball, driving Lucy Hamilton through the covers, but the responsibility of carrying the batting seemed to weigh heavily on her shoulders and the runs gradually began to dry up. Finally, in the ninth over she frantically moved across her stumps to try to unleash the pressure valve by sweeping Georgia Wareham, made a mess of it, and was bowled.

At the other end, Joseph reached six from her first 16 balls: when Voll put her down in the deep, it seemed something of a blessing in disguise for Australia. Joseph did threaten to unleash her long levers, hitting a six over long-on, but her next attempt at a big shot landed in the hands of Gardner at deep midwicket.

Gardner then had Stafanie Taylor and Jahzara Claxton caught off leading edges in the 11th over, and the stuffing fell out of the West Indies innings.

The day had begun in dramatic fashion with Dottin’s collapse during Advance Australia fair. The West Indies camp has been beset with illness since arriving in England: Taylor missed their group-stage match against England, while Matthews has struggled with a persistent cough. But for Dottin, one of West Indies’ most powerful batters, this was terrible timing.