The Australian women’s cricket team displayed great spirit to beat India by 21 runs in the third T20 International at the Brabourne Stadium here on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Australia overcame early jitters to post a competitive 172 for eight, riding on Alice Perry’s 47-ball 75. Chasing this target, India scored 106 runs for two wickets thanks to Shefali Verma (52 runs in 41 balls) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (37 runs in 27 balls).
Both of them added 73 runs in just 8.4 overs which looked like 67 runs could be scored in 40 balls. But as soon as Shefali was dismissed, India lost four wickets by adding 17 runs in less than three overs, which tilted the balance in favor of the Australian team. The Indian team could only manage 151 runs for seven wickets in 20 overs. Apart from Shefali, Harmanpreet and Richa Ghosh (01) were the other two ‘big hitters’ who lost wickets in the wake of hitting big shots. All Australian bowlers slowed down their deliveries to make it difficult to play strokes. Darcy Brown (2/19), Megan Shutt (1/23), spinner Ashley Gardner (2/21) bowled brilliantly.
Deepti Sharma remained unbeaten on 25 off 17 balls, she is not a ‘power hitter’ and she could not hit the big shots and Alyssa Healy’s side made it easy to register a win. Earlier, after being invited to bat, Australia had a very poor start, but the team recovered from it and made a good score. They lost the wickets of captain Alice Healy and Tahlia McGrath in the first and second overs respectively. Renuka Thakur had opener Healy lbw while Anjali Sarwani had Tahlia wicket, both dismissed for one run.
Australia’s score was two wickets for five runs in the second over. But Parry and then Grace Harris (41 off 18 balls) played a key role in taking Australia to a competitive score. Australia had scored 79 runs for three wickets in 10 overs and then in the last 10 overs the team added 93 runs to the score. Renuka Singh, Anjali Saravani, Devika Vaidya and Deepti Sharma took two wickets each for India. Openers Beth Mooney (30 runs) and Parry (75 off 47 balls) anchored the Australian innings with a 64-run partnership in seven overs for the third wicket.
Parry shared a 55-run partnership with Harris for the fifth wicket to take Australia to a good score. The Indian bowlers got wickets at regular intervals but also went for runs on the Brabourne Stadium pitch. Australia were 43 for two in the powerplay, but Mooney and Perry scored quick runs to take the team to 68 for two at the end of the eighth over. Vaidya then dismissed Mooney in the ninth over to give India a wicket. Parry, who hit Deepti Sharma for a six, was trying to add quick runs and in the 11th over, she also hit a long six over Vaidya’s head. But two balls later, Vaidya got his revenge but in the form of Ashley Gardner (07), who was brilliantly caught by Richa Ghosh. India, however, gave away 14 runs in the 14th over in which Parry and Harris hit sixes.
