Ellyse Perry shines with career-best knock to hand Australia series lead
Australia Women won the third T20I against India Women to take a 2-1 lead in the ongoing five-match T20I series. The star all-rounder Ellyse Perry smashed 75 runs off just 47 balls to help Australia score 172 runs while batting first. Indian batters managed to level the 187-run total in the last match and once again put up an impressive performance. But Australian bowlers managed to defend the total this time around
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bowl first at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai with one change of spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad replacing pacer Meghna Singh. Australia dropped Heather Graham, who took three wickets on her debut in the last match, alongside Kim Garth and Phoebe Litchfield.
Renuka Singh started the match with a big wicket of Australian captain Alyssa Healy in the first over. Anjali Sarwani then registered her first international wicket by dismissing in-form Tahlia McGrath
But the legendary all-rounder Ellyse Perry dominated the Indian bowlers in the middle overs and smashed her highest-ever T20I score with 75 runs off just 47 balls. Grace Harris smashed 41 runs off just 18 balls to help Australia score 172/8 in 20 overs. For India, Renuka Singh proved the best bowler with two wickets for 24 runs. While Devika Vaidya, Deepti Sharma, and Anjali Sarwani grabbed two each.
While chasing a 173-run target, India lost Smriti Mandhana on just one run on Darcie Brown’s delivery. Brown then put Australia comfortably ahead in the game with the wicket of struggling Jemimah Rodrigues in the fifth over.
But Harmanpreet and Shafali Verma avoided further wickets with a crucial 73-run partnership for the third wicket to keep India on track in the chase. Shafali smashed 52 runs off 41 balls before getting out on Nicola Carey’s delivery in the 14th over. Ashleigh Gardner then bowled the match-changing 15th over with the wickets of Devika and Richa Ghosh.
Harmanpreet kept the scoreboard moving from the other end and scored 37 runs off 27 balls. Megan Schutt took Kaur’s wicket in the 17th over to end India’s hopes in their big chase. Indian team then struggled for the big shots in the death overs and managed to score only 151/7. For Australia, Gardner and Brown took two wickets each to earn a crucial 21-run win.
