India vs Australia women | Visitors start tri-series with comprehensive six-wicket victory
After a 3-0 ODI whitewash against India, Australian women started the T20 tri-series on a winning note as Mag Lanning and Beth Mooney’s purposeful batting helped them secure a six-wicket victory. Batting first, India were able to manage 152 runs thanks to a stroke-full 67 by Smriti Mandhana.
After winning the toss, Australia invited India to bat first and it was a fantastic start for the visitors as Megan Schutt started the first over with a maiden. But Smriti Mandhana brilliantly compensated the first over by claiming 12 runs in the second. Mithali Raj was successful in keeping the strike from one end, which gave the freedom to Mandhana as she smashed two boundaries and one six in the third over and the team found themselves at 47/0 after the end of the powerplay. Ellyse Perry, however, delivered a good over as she conceded only three runs in his first one, but the things were back to the square one as Sophie Molineux conceded 10 runs to help Mandhana complete her half-century in the very next over. After playing 27 deliveries, Mithali managed to score only 18 runs when she was perished by Ashleigh Gardner’s ball. Her dismissal, however, resulted in the team not being able to continue the flow and could manage only 72/1 at the mid-way point of the innings.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur joined Mandhana at the crease and after watching the latter’s boundary in the 11th over, she also motivated herself and slammed two boundaries against Delissa Kimmince. But, Mandhana was expected to score big given the fact that she was completely set by then, but Gardner accounted for her scalp when she was on 67 to pick her second wicket. Youngster Jemimah Rodrigues also failed to get going and it seemed like the floodgates were opened after Mandhana’s dismissal. India were four down for 100 and it required a special effort from the lower-middle order batsmen to give some thrilling finish to the innings. The fireworks actually came from the bat of Anuja Patil, who by partnering Veda Krishnamurthy, made sure that India had a good score to defend on. Her 21-ball 35 resulted in Indian women ended up with a par total of 152 runs in the stipulated 20 overs.
Chasing a target of 153 was not going to be a difficult task for the powerful Australian batting line-up, but Jhulan Goswami gave India a brilliant start by dismissing Alyssa Healy in the fifth ball of the innings. Beth Mooney, however, donned the role of the aggressor and took on the attack on her head, but she failed to find support from her other partners. While Gardner played a cameo, Elyse Villani stood there in the middle for quite some time, which gave Mooney some confidence. The duo kept on frustrating the Indian bowlers and in the process made sure that the target was not too far away as the team found themselves at 95/2 in the first 10 overs of the run-chase.
After the end of the 10 overs, the Aussies still needed 58 runs with eight wickets in hand. However, Goswami sent Mooney back on the score of 45 and India sensed a slender opening to register a win. But, it was all down to how Meg Lanning would respond to the situation and Lanning, being the Australian superstar that she is, made sure that she would stick on the wicket till the very end. Knowing that the situation demanded more patience than flashiness, she was able to rotate
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