India women’s cricket team recorded a dominating win in the first T20I match against Australia at Navi Mumbai’s Dr Dy Patil Sports Academy on Friday, January 5. An impressive all-round performance helped India to chase down a 142-run target with nine wickets.
The Women in Blue registered their biggest T20I win against Australia and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series at home. West Bengal’s young pacer Titas Sadhi shone with four wickets and then fifties from openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma guided India women to a dominating win in just 17.4 overs.
Coming from an embarrassing 0-3 defeat in the ODI series, captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bowl first today.
Titas, the 19-year-old right-arm medium pacer, dismissed Beth Mooney in the fourth over to give India a breakthrough. Titas then further impressed with valuable wickets of Tahlia McGrath and Ashleigh Gardner in the sixth as Australia lost their first four wickets inside the powerplay.
The rising youngster Phoebe Litchfield and the legendary all-rounder Ellyse Perry brought Australia back into the game with a 79-run stand for the fifth wicket. Australia seemed on the track for the big total but Indian spinners made a sensational comeback to bowl out the travelling side on just 141 runs in 19.2 overs.
Titas shone with four wickets for 17, her career-best spell, and Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil took two wickets each. For Australia, Litchfield top-scored with 49 runs while Perry contributed 37 runs to help their team post a challenging total.
Defending 141 runs, young speedster Darcie Brown conceded 14 extra runs in the first over which gave India early control of the game. Both Shafali and Smriti dominated from the start and never seemed troubled against Australia’s bowling attack.
Smriti and Shafali pulled off a 137-run stand for the opening wickets with both scoring fifties each. Smriti lost her wicket while attempting a big shot off Georgia Wareham but it made no impact on the momentum. Smriti scored 54 runs off 52 balls while Shafali remained unbeaten on 64 off just 44 balls as India chased down the target in 17.4 overs.
India Women Playing XI: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Shreyanka Patil, Renuka Thakur Singh, Titas Sadhu
Australia Women Playing XI: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Phoebe Litchfield, Grace Harris, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown
More to follow…