India Women vs Australia Women 1st T20I Live: Harmanpreet Kaur in action. (FILE photo)

India Women (IND-W) vs Australia Women (AUS-W) 1st T20I Updates: Rain forced an early end with India comfortably ahead in the run-chase in the first T20I against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Chasing 134, India were off to a flying start, reaching 50/1 after 5.1 overs when rain became strong enough for players to be taken off the field at SCG. The DLS par score was 29 and with 5.1 overs bowled, the match was just about deemed complete and India were winners by 21 runs.

Earlier, Arundhati Reddy picked up four wickets as India produced a superb bowling and fielding effort after Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bowl first against Sophie Molineux’s Australia in the first of the three-match T20I series. Australia were bowled out for 133 in 18 overs, with Reddy’s four-for complemented by Renuka Singh Thakur, Sree Charani and Deepti Sharma. Australia lost their last five wickets for just 12 runs to collapse with two overs to spare.

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With points at stake in each of the matches across all three formats – two points each for a win in T20Is and ODIs and four points at stake in the one-off Pink-ball Test in Perth – every game assumes importance, but the bigger picture for both sides would be the T20Is that kickstart the tour. Across Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide, India would be hoping to fine-tune their T20 World Cup preparations while Australia would kick off the post-Alyssa Healy era under Sophie Molineux’s leadership. Read the series preview here.

Playing XIs for AUS vs IND T20Is

AUSTRALIA XI: Beth Mooney (wk), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ash Gardner, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Sophie Molineux (c), Kim Garth, Darcie Brown.

INDIA XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimha Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Kranti Gaud, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur.

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Live Updates

Why the multi-format tour of Australia is the real test for Harmanpreet Kaur’s India

They might have been dethroned as World Champions in both T20Is and ODIs, but there is little doubt that Australia remain the gold standard in women’s cricket. And India, who did the dethroning from the 50-over format in Navi Mumbai on that famous October night not so long ago, should know that better than anyone. Harmanpreet Kaur’s side has fallen at the Australian hurdle enough times in the past. READ MORE

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