India Women Win First Ever Series Down Under

Indian-womens-team
Victorious Indian women’s team at Melbourne Cricket Ground . Image Source : twitter@CricketAus

Melbourne : Mithali Raj and her team created history today  by winning their first series Down Under .  The tourists claimed the T20 series after an historic 10-wicket win at the MCG .

Australia set India a target of  126 , courtesy Meg Lanning’s 49 from 40 balls . In reply Indian captain Mithali Raj and fellow opener Smriti Mandhana continued to display the freedom they  had shown with the bat in Adelaide, targeting the usually economical Rene Farrell. They plundered 17 runs from Farrell’s first two overs and also took a likely to Holly Ferling’s bowling, scoring 15 off her first 11 balls, ensuring the tourists had their noses in front of the par score when rain stopped play after 7.5 overs, and only needed 14 runs off 13 balls when play did resume and Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculations came into play.  Raj finished with 37 from 33 balls and Mandhana 22 from 24, seeing India through to a 10-wicket win with five balls to spare. Fittingly, Raj scored the winning boundary that sealed a historic series win.

Earlier Meg Lanning’s unlucky run out at the non-strikers end in the 14th over prompted a collapse which saw the Southern Stars lose 5-10 in the space of 14 balls. There aren’t many ways to remove Lanning in that sort of mood but India found a way through a huge piece of luck when the captain was on 49, Harmanpreet Kaur getting a fingertip to a Jess Jonassen straight drive to catch Lanning out of her crease at the non-strikers end.

India’s Jhulan Goswami caused plenty of problems for Australia in the first T20 and she continued that today, taking two huge wickets in Grace Harris and Beth Mooney early in the Southern Stars innings. Harmanpreet Kaur chipped in with a very handy cameo, taking 1-2 from one over, picking up the key wicket of allrounder Jess Jonassen who was looking threatening.