Australia crush India in women’s tri-series opener
The change in format didn’t bring any change to the fortune of Indian women as Australia steamrolled them by six wickets in the women’s T20 tri-series opener at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday. After whitewashing India in the ODI series, Australia did not give the hosts even a semblance of hope.
After restricting India to 152/5, the Meg Lanning-led side batted with calculated aggression and romped home with 11 balls to spare.
Jhulan Goswami provided India early breakthroughs by castling in-form Alyssa Healy and Ashleigh Gardner, who was promoted up the order, in her first two overs. However, opener Beth Mooney (45 off 32) and Elyse Villani (39 off 33) took the Indian attack to the cleaners during their 79-run stand for the third wicket. Though both departed in quick succession, by then the damage had already been done as skipper Lanning (35 off 25) and Rachael Haynes (12 off 9) completed the formalities without any further hiccup.
Earlier, Smriti Mandhana, in the company of Mithali Raj, got India off to a flier with a flurry of strokes. Mandhana, in particular, was aggressive from the word
MUMBAI:
go and found fence at will.
Gardner got Mithali stumped for 18. Mandhana, though, continued to flourish and brought up her half-century before becoming Gardner’s second prey in the 14th over. Her innings of 67 was studded with 11 fours and two sixes.
Mandhana’s departure sparked a collapse as India lost three wickets in a span of seven balls adding just one run. Perry bounced out skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and local lass Jemimah Rodrigues to leave the hosts tottering at 100 for 4.
Brief scores: India 152/5 in 20 ovs (S Mandhana 67, A Gardner 2/22, E Perry 2/31) lost to Australia 156/4 in 18.1 ovs (B Mooney 45, E Villani 39, M Lanning 35*, J Goswami 3/30) by 6 wkts.