IND-W vs AUS-W 2nd T20I: Australian women’s team in control, defeating India in the second match and leveling the series at 1-1
Canberra. Thanks to a record partnership of 128 runs for the first wicket between Georgia Voll (88) and Beth Mooney (46), the Australian women’s team defeated India by 19 runs in the second Women’s T20 International here on Thursday, leveling the three-match series 1-1. The first wicket partnership between Woll and Mooney was Australia’s biggest partnership against India as the hosts scored 163 runs for five wickets.
Chasing the target, India made a great start but despite this they could only score 144 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs in which Harmanpreet Kaur contributed 36 runs, Smriti Mandhana 31 and Shefali Verma contributed 29 runs. For Australia, Ashley Gardner took three wickets for 22 runs while Kim Garth, Annabel Sutherland and Australian captain Sophie Molineau took two wickets each. The series decider will be played at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
India’s score was 65 runs for one wicket in the ninth over but the visiting team eventually lost six wickets within seven runs. After the fast start by Shefali (five fours in 23 balls), Mandhana was also playing freely. Both the Indian openers had scored 54 runs in the powerplay. But Molynoo ended the partnership by LBWing Shefali and Gardner took the important wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues (04).
India’s run pace slowed down due to the fall of two consecutive wickets. Soon the third wicket fell in the form of Mandhana when she was caught by Mooney off the ball of Garth. The Indian team had scored 71 runs for three wickets. Then captain Harmanpreet and Richa Ghosh (19) together added 55 runs for the fourth wicket. However, the run rate was increasing due to which the Indian players had to bear the brunt of taking risks.
Harmanpreet was dismissed by Garth on the second ball of the 17th over and three balls later, Ghosh was also stumped by Gardner. India’s hopes got another big blow when Gardner got Deepti Sharma (0) caught by Sutherland in the 18th over, taking India’s score to 128 runs for six wickets. Earlier, Australia made a good start with the help of openers Woll and Mooney. Arundhati Reddy once again performed well and dismissed both the Australian openers.
However, he dropped the catch of Ashley Gardner (10 not out) on the last ball of the innings. He took two wickets for 30 runs in four overs. On a flat pitch, Woll and Mooney destroyed the Indian bowling attack and added 128 runs in 14.5 overs. Mooney was out four runs short of her half-century. Woll and Mooney bettered Australia’s 115-run opening partnership in the Women’s T20 International against India, which was set by Alyssa Healy and Mooney in Melbourne in March 2020.
Right-handed batsman Voll took an aggressive approach from the beginning and Mooney also performed well. Voll took full advantage of India’s poor bowling and hit 11 fours and one six during his innings. He scored 88 runs in 57 balls. Mooney was caught out by Shefali Verma at mid-on off the ball of Arundhati on the second ball of the 15th over. This left-handed opening batsman scored 46 runs in her innings of 39 balls, hitting four fours. India won the first match played in Sydney by 21 runs through DLS method.
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