Indian women’s cricket team crash out of Women’s T20 Tri series 2018 loosing to the dominant Australian team by 36 runs here in Brabourne stadium. This is 6th consecutive loss for the women in blue in the season.
Earlier, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and choosed to bowl first. The Southern Stars lost Alyssa Healy and Ashleigh Gardner early, and were 29-2 at one stage. However a 114 runs stand between opener Beth Mooney and Elyse Villani off just 70 balls changed the complexion of the Aussie innings as they finish on 186/5 after the end of the regulation 20 over. Indian bowlers proved way too expensive in the middle overs, allowing the momentum to shift that was capitalized by the Australian batswoman. Radha Yadav, Jhulan Goswami and Poonam Yadav picked 1 wicket each, Pooja Vastrakar picked 2 wickets.
Chasing 187, India needed a spark at the top from Mandhana(3 off 4 balls), but it wasn’t meant to be today. Megan Schutt first dismissed Mandhana and later removed Mithali Raj(0) and Deepti Sharma(2 off 4 balls) to claim a hattrick and pushed India at backfoot upfront, struggling at 26-3. Indian opener Jemimah Rodrigues(50 off 41 balls) and captain Harmanpreet(33 off 30 balls) then stitched a 54 runs partnership off 50 balls. However, India lacked the middle overs acceleration which was rightly provided by Mooney and Villani for Australia.
With run rate soaring up, Jemimah and Harmanpreet looked for quick runs but perished in the process as India were 97-5 in 13.5 overs. Anuja Patil(38 off 26 balls) and Pooja Vastrakar(19 off 14 balls) added 53 runs for seventh wicket but it proved too little too late for the Indian team. Dellisa Kimmince and Ashleigh Gardner picked 1 wicket each.
Megan Schutt was adjudged player of the match for claiming a hattrick.
With India knocked out, Australia and England will face in the summit clash, but two games left before that which are dead rubbers.
Brief Score:
Australia 186-5 in 20 overs. Beth Mooney(71 off 46), Poonam Yadav(1/34) defeated India 150-5 in 20 overs. Jemimah Rodrigues (50 off 41), Megan Schutt (3/31)
