Indian bowlers put up a valiant effort with very few runs to defend before rookie Tahlia McGrath won the battle of nerves at the death, guiding Australia to a four-wicket victory in the second women’s T20 International and also clinch the multi-format series 9-5. Batting first, India put up an inept performance, scoring only 118 for nine, largely due to a 37 off 26 balls by Pooja Vastrakar. Australia scored the runs in 19.1 overs, courtesy rookie McGrath (42 not out off 33 balls), who launched into Shikha Pandey’s 18th over, getting 14 runs which proved to be a game-changer.
Interestingly, India were 81 for nine after the 17th over and in the last three overs, the tourists scored 37 with Vastrakar making all the runs in the company of Gayakwad, who could not open her account.After an impressive show in the their fearless batting was lauded, Indian batters flattered to deceive as none save skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (28 off 20 balls) showed the intent of taking the attack back to the opposition camp.
Instead, there was an inexplicable batting collapse with the hit-pairing of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma falling to Tayla Vlaeminck’s (2/18) pace. Then, spinners Sophie Molineux (2/11 in 4 overs) and Ashleigh Gardner (1/12 in 4 overs) stifled the batters during the middle overs with 27 dot balls and three wickets, which broke the backbone of their batting.