India women vs Australia women 3rd T20I: India women defeated Australia women by 17 runs in the third and final T20I match at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday, February 21. India have won the three-match series 2-1, and this is their first T20I series win on Australian soil in 10 years. Deepti Sharma wrapped things up with the last over as Australia were restricted to 159/9 in their 20 overs.
After opting to bat first in the decider, India posted a challenging total of 176/6 in their 20 overs on the back of an impressive performance from the star opener Smriti Mandhana. The senior batter continued his incredible consistency and smashed another fifty, laying the foundation for a big total. She went on to play an outstanding knock of 82 runs in 55 balls with the help of eight fours and three sixes.
On the other hand, Jemimah Rodrigues also made a magnificent impact and scored 59 runs in 46 balls. She smashed four boundaries. For Australia, Annabel Sutherland took two wickets, whereas Kim Garth and skipper Sophie Molineux found a scalp each.
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Chasing the target, Australia had a horrible start to their innings as they were reduced to 32/3 in just the fourth over, as Georgia Voll (10), Beth Mooney (6) and Ellyse Perry (1) departed cheaply. Phoebe Litchfield got a promising start but was dismissed for 26 runs after adding 31 runs with Ashleigh Gardner for the fourth wicket. While the hosts kept losing wickets, Gardner kept Australia's hopes alive at the other end.
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She smashed a fighting half-century, scoring 57 runs in 45 balls on the back of five fours and a six. Her dismissal in the 16th over almost ended Australia's hopes. The contributions from Georgia Wareham (12) and Annabel Sutherland (14) were not enough in the end. Shreyanka Patil and Shree Charani took three wickets each, whereas Arundhati Reddy found a couple of scalps.
"It was good to contribute to the series win. I think beating Australia in Australia is something really special. I'm really happy for the team and glad that I could contribute. Jemi is coming in and making me run all those twos, but yeah, I think really good partnership between Jemi and me. I think we did beat them in 2016 back when we came here, but I think we've played T20 after a very long time in Australia, so beating them is really nice, but we will move on to the ODI series and not celebrate too much." Mandhana said after being adjudged as the Player of the Match.