India end Australia's unbeaten run with Super Over win
Smriti Mandhana's 79 helps the hosts tie the five-match series 1-1
India have made a hash of some easy chases in the past. Not on Sunday though as they matched Australia with the bat to win the second women’s T20I via the Super Over and level the five-match series 1-1.
The match at DY Patil Stadium attracted almost a full house, with an attendance of over 47,000 who witnessed Australia suffer their first loss this year across formats. India set the Aussies a target of 21 in the Super Over and then restricted the visitors to 16.
Renuka Singh kept it full and wide while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur placed fielders straight down the ground. The strategy worked as the Australians could manage just six runs off the first four balls before Alyssa Healy smashed a four and six off the final two deliveries. It wasn’t enough for the Australians though.
At the halfway mark, when Australia set India a target of 188, it looked like an improbable task for the hosts. But they stuck to their guns to tie the match.
Shafali Verma (34, 23b; 4x4s, 1x6s) set the foundation with a 52-ball 76-run stand for the opening wicket with Smriti Mandhana. The left-hander carried on the good work in the middle overs with her knock of 79 from 49 balls, studded with nine fours and four sixes. She was involved in another 50-plus partnership with skipper Kaur (21, 22b; 2x4s, 1x6s). India then lost both of them in the space of six runs but Richa Ghosh’s (26*, 13b; 3x6s) lusty blows and Devika Vaidya’s (11*) two fours in the last over made sure India took the game into the Super Over.
Earlier, India looked in control with the ball by the end of the 12th over though they had made many goof-ups in the field. Australia were 93/1, with Beth Mooney only reaching 22 from 26 balls and getting a reprieve by Deepti Sharma.
But Mooney kicked on thereafter. The onslaught started when she hammered three fours in the 13th over bowled by Radha Yadav and two off the very next over delivered by Renuka Singh. The left-handed batter finished 82 not out off 54 balls to bring up her 15th T20I half-century.
She and Tahila McGrath put on an unbeaten 158-run partnership for the second wicket, the highest for Australia for any wicket in T20Is as they notched up a mammoth total of 187/1. While Mooney took her time to get her eye in, McGrath made the chances count to keep the scoreboard ticking, finishing unbeaten on 70 from 51 balls with the help of 10 fours and a six.
The Indian fielders once again let the bowlers down with dropped chances and misfields. Keeper Richa Ghosh, standing up to the stumps, dropped McGrath off left-arm medium-pacer Anjali Sarvani's bowling. McGrath got another life when Sharma had beaten her in the flight, but the aerial shot went right through Radha Yadav’s hands at point.