Australian women started the T20I series by beating hosts India with an easy win in the opening match of series played at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai just finished few moments. Meg Lanning won an important toss and elected to field. Smriti Mandhana continued her brilliant form that he showed in ODI series, scored 67 runs. Anuja Patil played a quickfire knock to help India post 152 for 5. Australian women lost 2 early wickets, Villani and Mooney steadied the innings before captain Lanning completed the job.
Australian captain Meg Lanning won the toss and invited India into bat. Smriti Mandhana played with positive intent putting pressure on Australian bowling attack while Mithali Raj could not score runs freely. At the end of first six overs, India scored 47 for 0. Mandhana continued her brilliant form completing her half-century off 30 balls. Mithali Raj was dismissed in the 11th over, adding 72 runs for the first wicket.
Smriti Mandhana, Rodrigues and Captain Harmanpreet Kaur were dismissed in quick succession adding just 1 run. Anuja Patil came to the crease, put pressure on the Australian bowling line-up scoring 35 off 21 balls. Veda Krishnamurthy remained not out on 15. For Australia, Gardner and Perry picked 2 wickets each.
Chasing 153, Jhulan Goswami picked the important wicket of Healy in the first over. Gardner was promoted at number 3 and made 15 runs off 8 balls before being dismissed by Goswami. Villani and Beth Mooney looked in control hitting boundaries and taking singles. At the end of first six overs, Australia scored 57 for 2.
Both Mooney and Villani added 79 runs for the third wicket. Indian women came back with 2 quick wickets of both well-set batters. Captain Lanning scored 35 off 25 balls and completed the job in 18.1 overs.
Australian women 156 for 4 in 18.1 overs ( Beth Mooney 45, Villani 39, Lanning 35*, Jhulan Goswami 3/30) beat
Indian women 152 for 5 in 20 overs ( Smriti Mandhana 67, Anuja Patil 35, Gardner 2/22, Perry 2/31) by 6 wickets.
Indian women will play next match in the tri-series against England on 25th March at the same stadium.
