Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana guided India women to a clinical 9-wicket win over Australia women after Titas Sadhu ran riot with the ball by claiming a four-wicket haul. The Women in Blue produced a dominant performance and completely outclassed the Aussies in all three departments at DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai.
Chasing a 142-run target, the Indian opening pair shared a 137-run stand to help India take a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series.
Shafali played the role of aggressor in the match-winning stand, while experienced Mandhana had no worries while being the second fiddle.
The right-handed batter smashed 6 fours and 3 sixes during her 64-run* knock, while Mandhana scored 54 runs off 52 balls. The southpaw hit seven fours and a six. She was dismissed by Georgia Wareham in the attempt to hit the glory shot but got caught by Tahlia McGrath.
India achieved the target with 20 balls to spare as Jemimah Rodrigues hit the boundary to seal the win for them.
Earlier, Titas Sadhu’s career-best 4/17, Deepti Sharma’s 2/24 and Shreyanka Patil’s 2/19 helped India Women bundle Australia out for a mere 141.
While Sadhu rocked Australia Women with a three-wicket opening burst, Phoebe Litchfield (49) and Ellyse Perry (37) led the fightback for the visitors with a 79-run stand for the fifth wicket.
However, Australia, who lost wickets in clusters on either side of the fifth wicket stand, were bowled out in 19.2 overs.
Titas returned 3-0-8-3 in her first spell in the powerplay, accounting for Beth Mooney (17), Tahlia McGrath (0) and Ashleigh Gardner (0).
The 19-year-old right-arm pacer Sadhu then returned for her final over — 18th of the innings — and found further success dismissing Annabel Sutherland (12) for her fourth scalp of the night.
Having topped the batting chart in the ODIs, the left-handed Litchfield carried her form into the shortest format but fell short of a fifty. She smoked three sixes and four fours to make 49 from 32 balls.
While Litchfield provided the fireworks, the seasoned Perry played second fiddle to perfection.
Perry struck two fours and as many sixes to make 37 off 30 balls and was one of the two dismissals for Deepti, who showed great control.
Litchfield fell in the 15th over off Amanjot Kaur (1/23), caught by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who took four catches in all.
Sadhu provided India with the first breakthrough in the fourth over when she had Mooney caught by Harmanpreet at mid-on right after beating the inside edge of the left-hander.
Renuka then got rid of Alyssa Healy (8) in a similar dismissal with Harmanpreet taking a comfortable catch at mid-off.
Sadhu troubled McGrath as an outside edge fell short of Deepti at the first slip, but a thick outside edge carried all the way down to the deep third, where Pooja Vastrakar took a fine catch.
Sadhu rocked Australia again when she had Gardner (0) hitting one back at her meekly for a return catch, reducing the visitors to 33/4 after the powerplay.
The 10th over of the innings was the costliest with both Litchfield and Perry smacking a six each off Vastrakar to collect 19 runs.
(With Agency Inputs)
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