With their chance of survival in the series already very slim after losing the first two games, Indian Women had a mammoth task at their hands as they took on Australia Women on Monday. However, they started quite brightly with Pooja Vastrakar scalping Alyssa Healy in the second over itself, reducing Australia to 12/1. Ashleigh Gardner came in next to steady things but her adventurous approach, which saw her hitting four boundaries, eventually took her out in the fourth over leaving Australia reeling at 29/2. However, Indian eves couldn’t capitalize on the early collapse as Elyse Villani came next to forge a brilliant partnership with Beth Mooney. The Kangaroos ended the tenth over with 84/2. The blossomed partnership had done enough damage to India’s plans and it needed to be taken out fast. However, by the time Poonam Yadav took out Villani in the 16th over, both the players had got their respective fifties with the scoreboard flashing 143/3. With only four overs remaining, Mooney went for the big shots and added 17 quick runs before returning to the pavilion in the 19th over. Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes chipped in late to take the total to 186/5. 

Chasing 187 in 20 overs, the first priority for the Indian Women was to keep their wickets and get the most of the power play overs. And when the young Jemimah Rodrigues took on Megan Schutt for two consecutive boundaries in the second over after a boundary-less first over, things looked ripe from India’s perspective. However, calamity struck in the same over as India’s biggest hopes Smriti Mandhana and the experienced Mithali Raj were bowled in consecutive balls by Schutt, reducing India to a paltry 15/2. Deepti Sharma came in next, not with the job of increasing the runs anymore but to keep things stable. However, she could only last two more overs as Schutt took her off as well, claiming her first hat-trick in international cricket. Alongside Kaur, Rodrigues took the game to the Australians as she brought up her 50 from 41 balls, hitting eight boundaries in the process, before eventually getting out to Delissa Kimmince in the 13th over. Kaur was India’s last hope with everyone expecting her to repeat her World Cup heroics, but the skipper returned to the pavilion in the next over itself as she was trying to take the highway. The match was all but over from there and though Anuja Patil and Pooja Vastrakar tried hard to salvage an unlikely win, India eventually lost the game by 36 runs