- By Namrata Vijay
- Sun, 15 Feb 2026 05:48 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND-W vs AUS-W 1st T20I: The Women in Blue performed well both with bat and ball as they defeated Australia by nine wickets with the help of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method during the first T20I and started their series against Australia on a high. Arundhati Reddy was the standout among the Indian bowlers, registering brilliant figures of 4/22 and helping the team skittle the hosts out for 133 runs.
The Indian bowlers had performed so well that the host got out with two overs remaining.
While chasing Smriti Mandhana had scored an unbeaten knock of 16 runs along with Jemimah Rodrigues, and that's when it started raining.
The match didn't start after that, where the visitors were 50/1 after 5 overs and were announced as the winners. The DLS par score was 29 runs after 5 overs.
Star opener Shafali Varma gave the team a flying start but later got out by Australia's new captain Sophie Molineux after scoring a brilliant knock of 21 runs off 11 balls.
While batting first, the host too had a flying start as they were 22 runs in 2.2 overs as Beth Mooney had got a leading edge when she tried to go big in Renuka Singh's over as Smriti Mandhana took the catch.
The other opener, Georgia Voll (18 off 10 balls), followed Mooney to the dressing room soon after as she got a thin edge while attempting to play the cut shot against a wide delivery by Kranti Gaud, and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh did the rest comfortably.
Ellyse Perry (20 off 11 balls) and Phoebe Litchfield (26 off 19 balls) steadied the ship with a brisk 41-run partnership for the third wicket. Still, just when their association was starting to threaten India, Arundhati struck thanks to some great work by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who ran back to cover a lot of ground and pulled off a brilliant catch diving sideways.
It was a big break for India, and they had their tails up as they snared two more wickets in the form of Ashleigh Gardner (4) and Litchfield to reduce hosts Australia to 80 for five at the start of the 10th over.
Georgia Wareham (30 off 19 balls) and Nicola Carey (12) added 41 runs for the sixth wicket to halt India's charge for a brief while before the former not just missed out on a poor Arundhati delivery but got out after miscuing a ball that was going down the leg side, leaving Australia at 121 for six in the 14th over.
The score remained the same as Carey was bowled by a quick Shree Charani delivery while the batter tried to play the cut shot.
Renuka then had Annabel Sutherland brilliantly stumped by Ghosh, who removed the bails in a jiffy.
Australia is beginning a new era with Sophie Molineux taking charge of the side after being appointed captain of the T20 team in January.