Indian batters keep finals hopes alive with a 7 wicket win over Australia
Thanks to Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues
and Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian women’s team kept their hopes alive of
reaching the finals of the Tri-series with a record run chase in the 5th
match against Australia played at Junction Oval, Melbourne on Saturday.
Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and decided to
field first. The decision paid off as Deepti Sharma dismissed Alyssa Healy off
the 3rd ball of the innings. Ashleigh Gardner came to the crease and
attacked the Indian bowlers right from word go. Beth Mooney on the other hand
was struggling to score runs. At the end of six overs, Australian women were 49
for 1.
After the power play overs, Harleen Deol who came into the
playing XI got the wicket of Beth Mooney. Mooney and Gardner added 62 runs for
the 2nd wicket. Australian captain Meg Lanning came to the crease
and played with positive intent. Gardner reached her fifty off just 33 balls.
Both Australian batters were aggressive against the Indian bowlers. Deepti
Sharma got the big wicket of Meg Lanning for 37. Lanning and Gardner added 79
runs for the 3rd wicket. After Lanning wicket, the Indian bowlers
made a strong comeback to restrict the run flow and kept picking wickets at
regular intervals. Radha Yadav dismissed the dangerous Gardner for a brilliant
93. Australian women posted 173 for 5 in 20 overs.
In reply to 174 runs to win, Shafali Verma and Smriti
Mandhana took the attack to Australian bowlers with aggressive strokes which
put the hosts under pressure. Verma was severe on the bad balls and just took
off right from word go. At the end of six overs, Indian openers raced to 70 for
0.
After the power play overs, Verma and Mandhana made the
batting look easy. To hit a boundary, Verma was dismissed by Perry with a catch
by Carey at the boundary for a quickfire 49 off 28 balls. The Indian openers
added 85 runs in 8.2 overs. Jemimah Rodrigues came to the crease and kept the
momentum of the innings playing with positive intent and making life of
Australian bowlers tough. With things looking in control, Rodrigues was
dismissed by Schutt. Rodrigues and Mandhana added 37 runs for the 2nd
wicket.
Harmanpreet Kaur struggled with her timing while Smriti
Mandhana reached her fifty off 44 balls. Mandhana was dismissed by Carey for
well made 55. Mandhana and Kaur added 42 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Deepti Sharma came and hit an important boundary. With 4 runs required off last
over, Deepti Sharma scored the runs to help Indian women chase down their
successful run chase in T20Is.
Indian women 177 for 3 in 19.4 overs (Smriti Mandhana 55,
Shafali Verma 49, Megan Schutt 1/29) beat Australian women 173 for 5 in 20
overs (Ashleigh Gardner 93, Meg Lanning 37, Deepti Sharma 2/27) by 7 wickets.
With this win, the Indian women’s team have kept their hopes
alive of reaching the finals. The final league match will be played between
Australian women and England women tomorrow.
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| Indian women chase their highest run chase in T20Is |
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