Evergreen Perry peaking for semis following India demolition

Australia all-rounder Ellyse Perry has revealed it was a major asset batting second when she helped pilot a successful run chase against India at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup on Sunday.

Perry scored her second half-century on the trot and claimed another Aramco Player of the Match award when contributing a clinical innings of 56 at Lord's, ensuring Australia qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament with their unbeaten status intact and sent India crashing out.

The 35-year-old put on a century partnership with fellow all-rounder Ash Gardner (53*), with the pair scoring a better than 10 runs an over as the Aussies chased down India's total of 170/4 with six balls remaining and setup a knockout semi-final against 2016 champions the West Indies.

Perry and Gardner made it look easy in front of a sold out crowd at the Home of Cricket, with India's bowling attack badly missing the services of injured spinner Shreyanka Patil as Australia stayed on course for an unprecedented seventh T20 World Cup title.

Perry said it helped her read the pitch after she watched India bat first in north London and both her and Gardner tried to score heavily early in each over during the run chase to make it easier to maintain the required run rate.

"It was a really enjoyable partnership with Ash," Perry said after the six-wicket victory at Lord's.

"I think probably having the opportunity to watch the way the first innings played out and to see that, it's sort of possible to accelerate through the middle and back end there. 

"The way that Ash came out and her approach to her innings was really important in the context of the game and I thought she shifted the momentum beautifully. 

"We spoke a lot about targeting the first couple of balls of the over, and I think she did that incredibly well, and it just gave us some momentum in the chase. 

"And I think once you get that, on a good ground you sort of put yourself in a good position. So it was lots of fun."

Perry and the Aussies now turn their attention to a final four meeting against the West Indies across the Thames at The Oval on Tuesday, after the Caribbean side snuck through to the semis narrowly in front of Sri Lanka on net run rate.

The West Indies famously stunned Australia in the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup at Eden Gardens, but Perry suggested her team would be much better prepared this time around.

"I mean, what's that, 10 years ago?," Perry noted.

"The game has changed so much in that period of time. And I just think like you cannot pull things, can't even pull things from last match because it's crazy how sport works as everything's different the next day so it doesn't really matter and it's very much a clean slate. 

"We've played each other quite a lot in the last couple of months. We actually had a tour to the West Indies earlier this year. We've played each other in a warm-up match, so we're sort of quite familiar with each other at the moment. 

"And yeah, like as I said, in World Cups, particularly semi-finals, like there's absolutely no favourites, there's no foregone conclusions with results. 

"And they've got, as you've highlighted, some tremendously talented and dangerous players with a lot of experience. 

"So be a great challenge for us. It's a quick turnaround too at a different venue, so I think we're really looking forward to it."