Clinical India Crush Australia By 9 Wickets In First Women’s T20I

Sydney: India were clinical with both bat and ball as they defeated Australia by nine wickets via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method in the first Women’s T20 International to start their tour Down Under on a resounding note on Sunday. Seamer Arundhati Reddy (4/22) led an excellent bowling display in the match in which India bowled out Australia for 133.

Such was the performance of the Indian bowlers that Australia were bundled out with two overs to spare.

In reply, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana remained unbeaten on a 17-ball 16 with Jemimah Rodrigues accompanying her and the heavens opened to cause an interruption.

After this the game could not continue and India, who had scored 50 to one in 5.1 overs, were declared winners. DLS par score was 29 after 5.1 overs.

Big-hitting Shafali Verma did her bit and made an 11-ball 21 before being dismissed by Australia’s new skipper Sophie Molineux.

Asked to bat first, Australia quickly moved away from the blocks and reached 22 in 2.2 overs when Beth Mooney (5) took the lead trying to lift Renuka Singh’s delivery, but managed to lob the ball up for Smriti Mandhana to complete the catch at cover.

Fellow opener Georgia Voll (18 off 10 balls) followed Mooney to the dressing room as she took a slim advantage as she tried to play a cut shot against Kranti Gaud’s wide delivery, and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh comfortably did the rest.

Ellyse Perry (20 off 11 balls) and Phoebe Litchfield (26 off 19 balls) steadied the ship with a spirited 41-run partnership for the third wicket, but just as their association began to threaten India, Arundhati pounced thanks to some great work from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who ran back to cover a lot of ground and managed to catch a great fish sideways.

It was a huge breakthrough for India as they grabbed two more wickets from Ashleigh Gardner (4) and Litchfield to reduce hosts Australia to 80 for five at the start of the 10th over.

Georgia Wareham (30 off 19 balls) and Nicola Carey (12) added 41 runs for the sixth wicket to halt India’s attack briefly; The former not only missed a poor Arundhati delivery but was also run out after mismissing a ball going down the leg side, leaving Australia at 121 for six in the 14th over.

The score remained the same when Carey was hit by a quick Shree Charani delivery while the batsman was trying to deliver the cut shot.

Renuka then got Ghosh to cleverly stun Annabel Sutherland, who promptly removed the bails.

Australia is starting a new era with Sophie Molineux, who was appointed captain of the T20 team in January, taking over the team.