Australia’s unbeaten run this year finally came to an end as Harmanpreet Kaur’s Indian side beat the world champions in a thriller on Sunday at the DY Patil Sports Academy Stadium.
Having won the toss, India decided to field first, with the dew factor being a major consideration. India retained the playing 11 from the previous game while Australia handed debuts to Phoebe Litchfield and Heather Graham.
The visitors got off to a good start once again, thanks to the intent that skipper Alyssa Healy displayed. She smashed five boundaries in the first three over itself. However, she was dismissed in the 4th over while trying to cut a wide and short delivery that lacked pace. The delivery from Deepti Sharma found the edge of Healy’s bat and Devika Vaidya took the catch to complete the job. To India’s displeasure, much like in the first T20I, Healy’s was the only wicket that India was able to take. Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath had another superb show in store for the massive crowd. Boundaries came in almost every over and they looked at ease while the Indians had no answers to the questions posed by the two of them. Mooney also completed 2000 runs in T20 Internationals when she got a boundary off Anjali Sarvani on the last ball of the 10th over. Mooney and McGrath shared a record stand worth 158 runs with all the Indian bowlers apart from Deepti Sharma conceding runs at more than 8 an over.
Ladkiyon ki cricket kaun dekhta hain? (who watches women’s cricket)
Hope you have an answer!🙂#INDvAUS #CricketTwitter 📸@CricCrazyVeena pic.twitter.com/gDRwmchjwB
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 11, 2022
India got off to a good start during the chase with both Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma looking at ease. India raced to 55 at the end of the powerplay and the runs continued to flow. Alana King, the girl with the golden arm struck in her first over, getting rid of Verma for 34. One brought two as debutant Graham dismissed Jemimah Rodrigues in the following over to shift the tide in Australia’s favor once again.
The calm and composed Kaur then joined Mandhana at the middle and started her innings with some quick runs. India started to step on the accelerator towards the end of the 14th over, smashing Megan Schutt for a six and a four. Graham returned in the 16th over to provide her team with another breakthrough, this time dismissing Kaur. India landed in some trouble again as Mandhana too lost her wicket in the 17th while attempting a cheeky scoop. She made 79 runs off just 49 deliveries in an innings laced with some exquisite shots. However, Richa Ghosh put up another display of her power-hitting skills to take the game to the wire. With 5 required off the last delivery, Devika Vaidya managed to find a boundary between the third man and point-to-level scores and take the game to a super over.
Healy put Heather Graham in the firing line, giving her the responsibility of bowling the super over. India scored 20 runs, with Smriti Mandhana making 13 of those. For India, it was Renuka Thakur who was chosen to defend the runs and she did a good job under pressure, restricting the Aussies to 16 runs, thus helping India win the game by 4 runs in the Super Over
The Winning Moment 🇮🇳#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/cteOdYpBdV
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 11, 2022
Smriti Mandhana was the player of the match for her contributions in both the main game and in the super over that followed. The series is now square at one apiece with the next three games set to be held at the Brabourne Stadium. Australia will not lose sleep over this result while India will know that there are a lot of improvements to be made, especially on the bowling front.
