(New Delhi) Meg Lanning-led Australia Women have won the three-match T20I series with a comfortable 14-run win in the last math of the series. India Women were not upto the mark chasing a target of 150 and fell well short of it as they failed to keep up with the required run rate.
Off-track run chase
The run chase was never on the right track as India were going with less than six runs per over for a better part of the innings. Opener Shafali Verma’s wicket early in the powerplay overs did not do them any good. The second-wicket partnership between Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues lacked acceleration. Rodrigues was not able to replicate what she did in the first T20I and succumbed to the scoreboard pressure in the 11th over. Mandhana continued but did not have much support from other end where skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was batting.
Mandhana got out in the 15th over when the equation had almost gone out of hand. The left-handed opener scored 52 runs from 49 deliveries. Pooja Vastrakar was promoted up the order but got out after scoring a boundary. Richa Ghosh’s burst of boundaries came too late in the run chase to stage a comeback. Ghosh punished Nicola Carey in the final over hitting two sixes and a four off the over. Ghosh remained unbeaten for 11-ball 23 with Deepti Sharma on the other end.
Mooney, McGrath take the game way
Asked to bat first, Australia’s innings got off to a similar start losing opener Alyssa Healy early on. Beth Mooney did the bulk of scoring from one end while wickets kept falling at the other until Tahlia McGrath came in to bat. The two in-form batters shared a crucial 44-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Mooney got out after scoring 61 runs from 43 balls whereas McGrath remained not out for 31-ball 44. In death overs, McGrath had support from new batter Georgia Wareham as well as the hosts posted a challenging total of 149/5. For India, Harmanpreet and Rajeshwari Gayakwad leaked runs but the latter picked up two wickets as well.
Tour ends with a loss
There were few impressive individual performances from the Indian contingent but they managed to win only one match on the tour. India pulled off a great comeback to pull off high-scoring run chase in the third ODI. However, India have been close to winning on a couple of occasions. India lost the second ODI off last ball and dominated most number of sessions in their first-ever pink-ball match which was interrupted by rain on multiple occasions. India were also on their way to post a big first-inning total in first T20I but rain played a spoilsport again.
India will be preparing for the T20 World Cup next year. No series have been announced yet between this period but the team will required game practice to be ready for the mega event after reaching the finals last time.
