India Women (IND-W) vs Australia Women (AUS-W) 3rd T20I: Shreyanka Patil and Sree Charani picked up three wickets each as India beat Australia by 17 runs at the Adelaide Oval to win the T20I leg of the multi-format series, taking a 4-2 points lead. Earlier, vice captain Smriti Mandhana hit a classy 55-ball 82 and Jemimah Rodrigues scored a steady half century after Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bat first. The half centuries powered India to 176/6 in 20 overs. In response, Shreyanka struck early in the powerplay to take the big wickets of Georgia Voll and Ellyse Perry. Charani struck crucial blows, taking out the dangerous Phoebe Litchfield, while a superb catch by Rodrigues to dismiss Ash Gardner turned out to be the clincher for India as they handed Australia their first bilateral series defeat at home since 2017.

After losing to the hosts in Canberra, India were eyeing a rare series win Down Under and were inarguably the better side over the three matches. India won the first game at Sydney by 21 runs (via DLS Method) before Australia hit back at the Manuka Oval. Three ODIs and the one-off Test follow this. India opted to bring back Shreyanka into the playing XI instead of Kranti Gaud while Australia added depth to their batting by including the explosive Grace Harris.

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Playing XIs for India vs Australia:

Australia XI: Beth Mooney (wk), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Kim Garth, Sophie Molineux(c), Darcie Brown

India XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Shreyanka Patil, Arundhati Reddy, Shree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur

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India’s run-chase collapses in the backend as Australia win by 19 runs

India’s batting collapsed in the second half of the run-chase of 164 as a collective bowling effort saw Australia fight back into the series to level things up. Georgia Voll hit a fine 88 but India fought back superbly in the backend with some terrific death bowling to restrict Australia to 163/5, with Arundhati Reddy picking up two wickets. But that innings was the game-changer ultimately in a match where big-scoring wasn’t easy. Harmanpreet Kaur had opted to bowl first in the second game at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. The multi-format series is now level on points at 2-2.

Rain played spoilsport but ultimately favoured India in the opening T20I against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Chasing a modest target of 134, India came out firing and reached 50/1 in just 5.1 overs before a heavy downpour halted play with the visitors way ahead of the par score at 29. Australia were bowled out for 133 in 18 overs, with Arundhati Reddy’s four-for complemented by Renuka Singh Thakur, Sree Charani and Deepti Sharma