India on Friday notched solely their second T20 Worldwide win over Australia on residence soil after Titas Sadhu, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana guided the house facet to victory within the first T20I on the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Chasing 142 to win, India cruised to victory with openers Verma and Mandhana scoring half centuries and stitching collectively a 137-run partnership, the primary by an Indian pair towards Australia in T20I.
With dew a consider Navi Mumbai, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur put Australia to bat first after profitable the toss. Kaur’s choice to bowl first proved to be the fitting one after pacer Sadhu ran by way of the Australian prime order.
The teen picked up the wickets of Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath and Ashleigh Gardner with fellow pacer Renuka Singh Thakur eliminating captain Alyssa Healey to scale back Australia to 33/4 within the opening six overs.
India have been poor within the area within the One Day Worldwide collection however they have been very good on Friday, throwing themselves round and saving boundaries. Because the runs dried up, the strain elevated on the Australian batters who went for dangerous pictures.
Ellyse Perry and the in-form Phoebe Litchfield steadied the Australian innings, placing collectively a 52-ball 79-run stand. Nevertheless, Litchfield missed out on a half century as she holed out to Harmanpreet off Amanjot Kaur’s bowling.
Sadhu returned to select up her fourth wicket whereas spinners Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil handled the tail by selecting up two wickets apiece to finish Australia’s innings at 141 with 4 balls to spare.
The dew got here into play when Australia started their defence with Darcie Brown leaking 14 runs in her opening over. The Australian bowlers by no means actually bought going as Verma and Mandhana raced to 59/0 within the opening six overs.
The pair have been by no means actually troubled by the Australian bowlers as Verma introduced up her eighth T20I half century with Mandhana following up along with her twenty third half century. Within the course of, Verma and Mandhana introduced up the primary 100-run partnership by an Indian pair towards Australia in T20Is.
Mandhana appeared to win the match with a six however McGrath took a superb catch on the ropes to interrupt the stand. Nevertheless, the harm was already performed as Jemimah Rodrigues wrapped up a well-deserved victory for India.