India 176 for 6 (Mandhana 82, Rodrigues 59) beat Australia 159 for 9 (Gardner 57, Patil 3-22, Charani 3-32) by 17 runs
Australia fell away as Sophie Molineux’s captaincy reign started in shaky fashion. It was their first bilateral series defeat on home soil since 2017 while India’s only previous bilateral series victory in Australia came a decade ago when they triumphed 2-1 in the T20Is.
For the third straight match, Australia resisted selecting Tahlia McGrath and Megan Schutt with Grace Harris replacing allrounder Nicola Carey in their only change from the side that drew level in the series with a 19-run victory in Canberra.
The multi-format series shifts to the three ODIs starting with Tuesday’s match at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane.
Mandhana and Rodrigues lay superb platform
After the early wicket of Shafali Verma, Rodrigues exploded out of the blocks as she zoomed past 2500 T20I career runs to join Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur as the only Indians to have reached that landmark.
She put pressure on Molineux with a first ball boundary and her cavalier approach helped take the pressure off Mandhana, who had started sluggishly. Mandhana started to find her rhythm with a couple of boundaries off Molineux at the end of the powerplay as India reached 54 for 1 after six overs.
With an excellent platform laid at 86 for 1 at the midpoint, Mandhana reached her half-century off 38 balls and the partnership soon passed triple figures.
They scored boundaries regularly and did have some fortune with miscues continually evading fielders. Mandhana eventually holed out for 82 in the 17th over before Richa Ghosh smashed a handy 18 off 7 balls.
But India suffered a late collapse much like in game two, losing 4 for 8 in the last nine deliveries.
Brown struggles to fire
Seamer Darcie Brown entered the match under pressure after sporting figures of 0 for 39 off five overs across the opening two matches. Her confidence took an early beating with a 10-ball opening over mired by a slew of wides.
Molineux lost faith with Brown replaced by Kim Garth and it did the trick with Shafali hitting straight to mid-on in the third over. Brown returned in the eighth over and resorted to the short delivery only for Mandhana to stand up and powerfully cut to the boundary.
Brown did try to mix it up and went around the wicket in the 13th over, but was left exasperated when Mandhana swung across the line and blasted over the legside boundary in arguably the shot of the innings.
Brown did not complete her slate of overs, finishing with 0 for 27 from three overs with the spotlight set to intensify over her spot. But she was not the only bowler struggling to fire in a ragged Australia effort as Molineux searched for answers in a tough early test to her captaincy reign.
Australia did perform better at the backend with Sutherland finishing with a couple of wickets, but all six bowlers conceded more than eight runs per over.
Patil justifies the faith
India made just one change with Patil recalled at the expense of seamer Kranti Gaud. She was dropped after a tough opener at the SCG where she conceded 24 runs from two overs and went wicketless.
She faced a tough test against an Australian top-order backing an ultra-aggressive approach. Patil held her nerve by dismissing in-form Voll on her second delivery in the second over before clean bowling Perry, whose 350th match across formats did not go to plan after missing the pitch of the ball having charged down the pitch.
Gardner tries valiantly but Australia’s batting misfires
Australia had a tough task at hand. They had never chased down a higher target – their best was mowing down 173 runs in a nine-wicket win over India in December 2022 in Mumbai.
Australia’s overly attacking tactics in the powerplay did not work and they were always up against it after a top-order collapse.
They did have some hope when Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield combined for an lively 31-run partnership. Having effectively unfurled the switch hit to club a boundary off Charani, Litchfield couldn’t repeat the dose on the very next ball to leave Australia 63 for 4 in the 9th over.
Gardner had a reprieve on 26 when Amanjot Kaur dropped an easy return catch. She made them pay and blasted a 42-ball half-century until Rodrigues’ brilliance in the outfield proved a game-changer.
Australia’s hopes effectively ended when Harris fell in bizarre fashion when she stepped on her stumps having pulled Charani for a boundary. The home side will need to do some soul searching before the ODI leg begins.
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth
