New Delhi: The Australian women's cricket team defeated India by four wickets in the India W vs Australia W 2nd T20 International match on Saturday at the Carrara Oval ground in Queensland. After inviting India to bat first, Australia restricted India to a paltry 118/9 in 20 overs.
Chasing 119 for the win seemed like a walk in the park but a spirited bowing performance from India kept things tight until the very end. However, a heroic match-winning unbeaten innings of 42 from Tahlia McGrath powered Australia to a 6-wicket win with 5 balls remaining.
Australian now have an unassailable 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20x series. With this win, Australia also clinch the multi-format series 9 points to 5 with a game to spare. Australia won the ODI series 2-1, drew the Test series and now have won 2nd T20I to win the series. The third and final India vs Australia T20 will be played on October 10 in Queensland.
Meanwhile, ex-India opener Wasim Jaffer termed a delivery from Shikha Pandey, which departed Australia's star batter Alyssa Healy as 'ball of the century' in women's cricket.
The ball bowled by Shikha Pandey had a magical swing and seam movement which absolutely stunned Healy as the ball pierced the gap between her bat and pad to hit on the top of middle stump.
Earlier, Indian team did not have a very good start as Smriti Mandhana was dismissed after scoring just 1 run. After this, Shefali Verma (3 runs) too failed to deliver with the bat, today. Jemima Rodrigues, who had made a big impact in the first T20, was dismissed after scoring just 7 runs. Pooja Vastrakar remained unbeaten after scoring 37 runs.
For Australia, Tayla Vlaeminck and Sophie Molineux bagged two wickets apiece.