Riding on the back of Grace Harris and Ashleigh Gardner's pyrotechnics, Australian women hammered India to win the fifth and final T20I by 54 runs on Tuesday at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
Gardner struck 66 off 32 deliveries and Grace smashed 64 off 35, remained not out and took Australia to a daunting total of 196. Chasing 197, the Women in Blue never looked like they were going to chase it. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma got out quickly and India were reeling at 24/2.
No Indian batter threatened to take the game away from the Aussie grip. Deepti Sharma struck some lusty blows towards the end, slammed 53 off 34 deliveries, but it all came a little too late, and the team eventually succumbed to a loss.
To start with India won the toss and opted to field first. As far as bowling is concerned, the Indian bowlers had Australia down at 67/4, but they let go of the hold and the duo of Grace and Gardner left no stone unturned to hurt them beyond repair. For Australia though, defending 197, they bowled tremendously well to restrict the hosts to just 142 and take all 10 wickets.
Heather Graham did most of the damage as she scalped four wickets and gave away just 8 runs in 2 overs. As with the bat, Gardner continued to hurt India with the ball as she also took 2 wickets.
Bottom Line
India came close on many occasions, barring the last T20I, but they couldn't cross the line. The Super Over win remains their only win of the series. If we talk about the positives, one can say that the women batters played attacking cricket irrespective of how many wickets fell and the match situation. This can bode well for the team going ahead, keeping up with the increased demands of the game.
But on the negative side, this has been the problem with this team. They come close, but more often than not, fall short. Going ahead, the team would want to work on executing their plans to perfection and closing off the games.
