Mooney stirs Australia to a convincing nine-wicket win over India in the first T20I

Opener Beth Mooney’s dominating unbeaten knock of 89 off 57 balls powered Australia Women to a convincing nine-wicket win with eleven balls to spare over India Women in the first T20I match at D.Y. Patil Stadium, on Friday.

With this win, Australia have taken a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series. Mooney smashed 16 fours during her stay in the middle and was helped by Tahlia McGrath’s unbeaten 29-ball 40, which included four boundaries and two sixes.

The win meant Australia are yet to lose a match this year in any format of the game. In T20Is, this was their ninth win in 12 matches, with three games producing no result.

Earlier, Deepti Sharma’s brilliant quickfire knock of 36 not out off 15 balls with eight fours and Richa Ghosh’s 36 off 20 balls with five fours and two sixes propelled India Women to 172/5 in 20 overs.

Apart from Deepti and Richa, the likes of Shafali Verma (21 off 10), Smriti Mandhana (28 off 22), and Harmanpreet Kaur (21 off 23) got decent starts but couldn’t convert them to big innings.

Australia win the first #INDvAUS T20I.#TeamIndia will look to bounce back in the second match of the series. 👍 👍

Scorecard 👉 https://t.co/bJbnxaQzAr pic.twitter.com/ZsIyNiHmNh

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) December 9, 2022

Chasing a challenging total of 173, Mooney was a bit watchful early on but her partner and Australia skipper Alyssa Healy was aggressive in her intent. Mooney overtook her skipper with a hat-trick of boundaries off Renuka Singh in the fifth over. Eventually, Australia finished the Powerplay at 47/0.

The formidable Australian opening pair of skipper Healy and Mooney gave Australia the start it needed, adding 73 runs in just under nine overs.

Healy attacked the Indian spinners, scoring sixes off Devika Vaidya and Radha Yadav and made 37 off 23 balls with 4 fours and two sixes before getting out caught at covers to Vaidya in the ninth over. Fielding at point, Radha put down a tough chance to give McGrath a reprieve in the 10th over as Australia ended the halfway stage at 81/1.

Both Mooney and McGrath scored boundaries at regular intervals, with the former bringing up a 43-ball fifty in the 14th over. The equation was 37 off the last five overs, which came down to 26 off the last four, with Mooney scoring a four off Renuka Singh in an 11-run over.

In the 17th over, Meghna Singh yielded 19 runs after McGrath smashed her for a six and a four while Mooney hit two fours in the same over, taking Australia closer to the target. A couple for McGrath took Australia over the line on the first ball of the 19th over with nine wickets in hand. Mooney and McGrath shared an unbroken 100-run standoff 56 balls for the second wicket.

Devika Vaidya was the only wicket-taker for India and ended up with figures of 1/33 from her three overs.

Earlier, put into bat first, India were off to a flying start as Shafali Verma smacked 21 runs off 10 balls before falling to Ellyse Perry in the third over. After Shafali’s wicket, Smriti Mandhana was looking good and continued the charge and hit a few boundaries to maintain the momentum.

However, Perry struck again with the wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues who was dismissed for a duck off 6 balls, leaving India at 45/2 in 4.5 overs. The Aussies managed to restrict the run rate between overs 6-12 and also took the wickets of Smriti and Harmanpreet during that period.

In the 12th over, India were 76/4 when Richa Ghosh walked out to bat and changed the momentum of the game in India’s favour. She added a quickfire half-century partnership with Devika Vaidya who scored an unbeaten 25 off 24 balls with one four and a six, which got India going.

However, Richa got out in the 17th over but Deepti Sharma who came out all guns blazing smashed four fours in a row in the last over to take India to a score of 172/5 in 20 overs.

Ellyse Perry was the pick of the bowlers for Australia taking 2/10 from her two overs.

Beth Mooney was awarded Player of the Match for her match-winning knock of 89 off 57 balls.

Brief scores: India Women 172/5 in 20 overs (Deepti Sharma 36 not out, Richa Ghosh 36; Ellyse Perry 2-10) lost to Australia Women 173/1 in 18.1 overs (Beth Mooney 89 not out, Tahlia McGrath 40 not out; Devika Vaidya 1-33) by 9 wickets.