Australia win by 19 runs
After a disappointing loss in Sydney and the frustration of not being able to finish the game due to the rain, Australia came into this match with a lot of determination. Their batting score appeared under par and India’s start made it look like it was certain to be that way, but a strong bowling performance through the middle and late overs of the game secured the win for the home team.
Voll was a well-deserved player of the match – her determination set the standard for her teammates and ensured her team had a strong platform to build from. While the batting innings finished in a disappointing manner for Australia, it was a good enough score to give the bowlers something to defend and they gave their all to defending it.
For India, Shafali and Smriti put on a great opening stand, but after Shafali was out, the scoring rate stalled. Richa and Harmanpreet put on another decent partnership, but Sutherland swung the momentum of the match with some very tight overs and was eventually rewarded with two wickets late in the game.
A fascinating match all round, with both teams having periods of ascendancy, it sets up both the T20 mini series and the multi-format series beautifully, with a win apiece on the board now.
The next game will be in Adelaide on Saturday evening and I’ll be here to take you through that one as well. I’ll see you then – thanks for joining me for this exciting game!
Player of the Match: Georgia Voll
With her highest T20I score, Voll takes the player of the match prize. She’s very happy with the team’s performance and is hoping they can take this form into the third T20 in Adelaide on the weekend.
20th over: India 132-8 (Kranti 12, Renuka 1)
Molineux takes the final over for herself – a captain’s prerogative I suppose! She nearly takes a catch from the second ball of her over, but it sails just to her left. However she does eventually get the wicket with Perry taking a good catch on the boundary. Renuka scampers through for a single straight away and Kranti finishes the game positively for India with a six and a four, but it’s not enough to get them over the line and Australia take the win.
WICKET! Charani c Perry b Molineux 0 (India 133-9)
Charani goes hard, taking the approach that she knows she needs to, but Perry takes a good catch on the boundary to continue the Indian collapse.
19th over: India 132-8 (Kranti 1, Charani 0)
Sutherland returns for her final over and takes the wicket of Arundhati early and then nearly gets another, but Brown can’t hold on to the catch. So she takes matters into her own hands by bowling Amanjot in a sensational over.
WICKET! Amanjot b Sutherland 3 (India 132-8)
Sutherland now can’t stop taking wickets, she bowls through and straight and goes straight through Amanjot.
WICKET! Arundhati c Mooney b Sutherland 2 (India 131-7)
Wickets are falling everywhere now and Sutherland is rewarded for an excellent bowling performance by at last picking up a wicket.
18th over: India 130-6 (Arundhati 2, Amanjot 2)
Gardner returns for her fourth and final over of the night. She picks up the Richa wicket from the third ball of the over, then Deepti on the fifth and it’s a very successful over.
WICKET! Deepti c Sutherland b Gardner 0 (India 128-6)
A second ball duck for Deepti as she tries to make something happen, but she can only manage to hit it straight up in the air for Sutherland to take an easy catch.
WICKET! Richa st Mooney b Gardner 19 (India 128-5)
Mooney finally gets that stumping she was after – Gardner lures Richa well out of her crease and deceives her enough to slide the ball past her to the keeper.
17th over: India 127-4 (Richa 19, Amanjot 1)
Garth returns to try to stem the flow of runs – Australia were looking in control after the Sutherland over, but the Molineux over opened the door again for India. Mooney drops a chance from the first ball of the over – just a slight tickle on the ball from Harmanpreet, but she would have been gone if Mooney had held on to it. Harmanpreet gets a luckier edge a couple of balls later, which glides down to the boundary, but eventually Garth gets her where she wants her and takes the wicket.
WICKET! Harmanpreet c Molineux b Garth 36 (India 126-4)
Finally Australia get the breakthrough they were looking for, luring Harmanpreet into playing a big shot and Molineux takes a comfortable catch.
16th over: India 120-3 (Richa 19, Harmanpreet 30)
Molineux brings herself back as we get into the business end of this match. Richa takes a liking to the first ball and dances down the pitch to meet it and slaps it over the offside for four. The next ball is smartly worked single and then Harmanpreet gets into the boundary hitting game and this is very quickly an expensive over for the captain.
15th over: India 108-3 (Richa 14, Harmanpreet 23)
Sutherland bowls her third over now, with the required run rate sitting just below 10 an over. It’s tough, but doable with these two batters at the crease. Sutherland is keeping her line and length tight, to keep the squeeze on. She doesn’t have a wicket so far tonight, but she’s been doing her job with the ball. A very good over from her.
14th over: India 105-3 (Richa 13, Harmanpreet 22)
Gardner’s third over and she tempts Richa straight away and Mooney chases a stumping, but Richa gets back into her crease in plenty of time. Then the outside edge beats Mooney and runs away for four, which is followed by misfield – an indication of the pressure being applied. Mooney has a big appeal for a stumping on Harmanpreet next ball, which seems like a very optimistic appeal and it turns out to be so, Harmanpreet is easily in her crease. Mooney just really wants a stumping I think.
13th over: India 98-3 (Richa 7, Harmanpreet 21)
Molineux bowls her second over and she lures Harmanpreet into almost throwing her wicket away, but the ball doesn’t quite make its way to Sutherland and then Richa gets her first boundary and they keep the score ticking over.
12th over: India 90-3 (Richa 1, Harmanpreet 19)
Another Darcie Brown over and it starts with a leading edge that flies towards Voll, but it goes just over her head and runs away for four. Brown follows it up with a wide that’s very wide indeed. There’s an appeal for lbw late in the over that no one but Mooney is much interested in, but I guess Molineux figures she was right about the last one, so let’s have another go and they decide to review. However this time the umpire had it right and it’s clearly missing the stumps on ball tracker.
11th over: India 82-3 (Richa 1, Harmanpreet 14)
Finally we get some leg spin, as Wareham enters the attack. (Apologies for my leg spin bias, my daughter is a leg spinner and as such it’s my favourite discipline of bowling). However, it also seems to be something Harmanpreet enjoys as Wareham gives her too much width and she hits two consecutive boundaries after India going 30 balls without a boundary.
10th over: India 71-3 (Richa 0, Harmanpreet 4)
Garth returns to bowl the last over before drinks. Mooney is keeping up to the stumps to cramp Harmanpreet up in her crease, but she’s too smart to get stuck there for long and guides the ball away for a single straight away. Smriti plays an aggressive shot, but the field is set well and she can also only manage a single. Australia have done a great job to heavily restrict the boundaries after an early onslaught from Smriti and Shafali. Smriti has to go and we have an early drinks break. Richa faces her first ball after the break and finishes the over with two dots.
WICKET! Smriti c Mooney b Garth 31 (India 71-3)
If I’m being honest I thought this appeal was one of those ones where they’re mostly just trying to trick the umpire into thinking it’s not a wide. But Australia surprised me by reviewing it and surprised the umpire by being right – Smriti has to go after a strong start.
9th over: India 68-2 (Smriti 30, Harmanpreet 2)
Gardner comes back for her second over and starts with a dot, before taking Jemimah’s wicket and bringing the captain to the crease. Harmanpreet gets off strike with a quick single immediately to get the set batter back on strike. Smriti rotates the strike straight back again and Gardner closes out a very good over for Australia with a dot and a single.
WICKET! Jemimah c Sutherland b Gardner 4 (India 65-2)
The Sutherland squeeze the over before pays dividends and Sutherland fittingly takes the catch after Jemimah attempts a slog sweep and doesn’t quite get hold of it.
8th over: India 65-1 (Smriti 29, Jemimah 4)
Sutherland returns for a second over and she lets three singles through from the first three balls, then an almost catching opportunity presents itself, but it’s just short of the field. Jemimah finishes the over with a wild looking ramp that clears Mooney, but just finishes with a single – six singles from the Sutherland over.
7th over: India 59-1 (Smriti 26, Jemimah 1)
Captain Molineux comes in to bowl her first over. She starts well, just three singles from her first three balls, before the breakthrough comes and Shafali is out lbw, bringing Jemimah Rodrigues to the crease. A good over from the captain, just the five runs from it, plus the wicket.
WICKET! Shafali lbw Molineux 29 (India 57-1)
The captain gets the breakthrough once again – she applies the pressure early in her over and it pays off, with Shafali getting down to the ball and missing it, before it crashes into her pad. She takes the review, but it’s unsuccessful and she has to go.
6th over: India 54-0 (Smriti 28, Shafali 23)
Sutherland enters the attack for the first time and her first ball is a dot, but then Shafali drives one aggressively past long off for a one bounce four, before following it up with another boundary the very next ball. An interesting moment midway through the over when Shafali ducks under a Sutherland bouncer, but leaves her bat in the air and the ball bounces straight into it. Fortunately for Shafali, it falls safely in front of her! The powerplay is now complete.
5th over: India 46-0 (Smriti 20, Shafali 23)
Brown returns for her second over with Smriti on strike to her now, having bowled her last over entirely to Shafali. The first ball looks like a catching opportunity, but it’s slightly out of reach of Litchfield, who makes good ground in the attempt. The next ball Smriti manages to pierce the field between midwicket and mid on and guides the ball to the boundary for four. Another four follows, with a straight drive back past Brown – the slower ball is not doing its job for Brown tonight. It’s an expensive over and India will be very pleased with it.
Updated
4th over: India 32-0 (Smriti 9, Shafali 20)
Kim Garth comes into the attack – Molineux possibly looking to unsettle the batter with lots of quick bowling changes. Garth starts with a wide, which probably wasn’t as unsettling to the batters as they would have hoped. She tightens up her line and gets things back under control, bowling well to her field to keep it to a tidy six runs for the over
3rd over: India 26-0 (Smriti 7, Shafali 17)
Nicola Carey comes into the attack for the first time tonight and Smriti finally gets some strike after being stranded at the non-strikers’ end for most of the first two overs. She starts watchfully, then picks up the length of the second ball perfectly and sends it sailing to the boundary for four with a lovely pull shot past deep midwicket. Carey fights back with good line and length and then catches Smriti off guard and gets her hitting to deep extra cover not quite under control, but it lands safely.
2nd over: India 18-0 (Smriti o, Shafali 17)
Darcie Brown opens the bowling from the other end and Shafali starts with a crisp cut shot, but it can’t pierce the field and it’s a dot. There’s a play and miss on the second ball that Shafali will be relieved didn’t catch the edge. But Brown then loses her line and Shafali works it fine to the boundary to keep the score ticking over. It’s a good battle here between Brown and Shafali – four dots in the over, but three times Brown loses her line, leading to a wide and two fours.
1st over: India 9-0 (Smriti o, Shafali 9)
Gardner opens the bowling for Australia and Shafali starts aggressively, sending the ball up into the air and it looks like it could be a catching opportunity, but with the field up for the powerplay, it falls safely and Shafali picks up two runs. A great first over from India to get this run chase underway.
Australia 163-5
The innings started incredibly well for Australia – a great recovery after a forgettable performance in Sydney on Sunday. Georgia Voll was a standout – while she didn’t look particularly in control at the start of her innings, she built into it with extreme determination and muscled her way to 88 at a strike rate of 154.
Mooney played a great supporting role for her 46, but once the two openers were out, there wasn’t a lot write home about for Australia. They still ended up with a much better score than they managed in the first T20, but Manuka Oval is known for being a great batting wicket and they certainly would have been hoping for a higher total for their bowlers to defend.
Arundhati Reddy was the pick of the bowlers for India, finishing with figures of 2-30. She could have had a third wicket, but Amanjot couldn’t hold on to the catch.
It’s certainly a score that has this match poised – anything could happen from here. India will feel very confident they can chase this down, but Australia will know if they bowl well, they can take wickets and keep the scoring rate down.
Not long until we find out which team has the edge tonight – stay with me for the second innings!
20th over: Australia 163-5 (Gardner 10)
Charani comes on to bowl the final over, which starts with a single to Gardner and then a near run out on the second. Gardner and Perry are doing their best to finish with a bang and add some much-needed runs to the total, but they can’t seem to find the middle of the bat or the gaps in the field. The over finishes with two run outs and what seems like a below par score.
WICKET! Wareham run out (Charani) 0 (Australia 163-5)
Wareham looks to dash down for a run after Gardner can only defend it back to the bowler and she’s run out for a diamond duck to finish the innings.
WICKET! Perry run out (Kranti, Charani) 7 (Australia 163-4)
It looks like Perry made her ground, but the third umpire reveals that she didn’t have her bat grounded and she has to go.
19th over: Australia 158-3 (Perry 6, Gardner 6)
Arundhati bowls her fourth and final over for the night and Perry kicks off the over by nutmegging herself and the ball goes through to the boundary for a valuable four leg byes. Arundhati follows up with two dot balls and then turns Perry inside out – it’s a wide, but Perry is very nearly out stumped. It’s a good over from Arundhati that nearly finishes with a wicket, but it’s dropped in the outfield by Amanjot.
18th over: Australia 151-3 (Perry 5, Gardner 5)
Renuka comes in for her final over of the match and quickly dismisses Litchfield. India have done a good job to swing things back in their favour after Australia got out to a flyer. However, Gardner then gets off the mark with a thick outside edge that dashes fortuitously to the boundary to give the scoring rate an uptick and brings up the 150 runs for Australia on the next ball.
WICKET! Litchfield c Smriti b Renuka 6 (Australia 145-3)
Litchfield looks to cut one through the field and a diving Smriti picks up the catch. At first no one is really convinved it’s a wicket except Smriti and soon she is proved right by the third umpire.
Updated
17th over: Australia 144-2 (Perry 3, Litchfield 6)
Arundhati continues after getting the breakthrough in her last over and after a quick two on the first ball, she dots Voll up and then takes her wicket. Perry comes to the crease in her disturbingly old helmet – I do always think that you wouldn’t want to be hit in the head while wearing a helmet that old. A good over for Arundhati and India.
Updated
WICKET! Voll c Amanjot b Arundhati 88 (Australia 141-2)
Voll looked certain to get her first T20I century, but she can’t get the ball up and over the field and Amanjot takes a simple catch.
16th over: Australia 139-1 (Voll 86, Litchfield 6)
Deepti teases a little Mankad on her first ball, but it doesn’t put Litchfield off and she sweeps the first ball for four, looking very strong and confident. The next ball is flat batted down field for one and then Voll decides she wants in on the sweeping action and plays it to the boundary as well. Some dangerous running on the last ball, but they make it in safely.
Updated
15th over: Australia 129-1 (Voll 81, Litchfield 1)
Arundhati bowls her second over of the night and Mooney puts up a catching opportunity early in the over, but once again it lands safely, before hitting a wide one for four to really rub salt into the wound for India. However before long she has to go, caught by Shafali and Litchfield comes to the crease after a long wait in the dugout.
WICKET! Mooney c Shafali b Arundhati 46 (Australia 128-1)
Just as Mooney is really hitting her stride and upping her strike rate, she slaps one back quite innocuously into the waiting hands of Shafali and India have their first wicket.
14th over: Australia 120-0 (Voll 81, Mooney 38)
Shafali Verma comes on for her first over of the night with her offspin. A few singles come from her first few balls as the batters take a watchful stance while they figure out what she’s all about. Voll and Mooney bring up Australia’s highest ever opening stance against India, surpassing the partnership by Mooney and Healy at the 2020 T20 World Cup Final.
13th over: Australia 114-0 (Voll 78, Mooney 35)
Voll starts this over from Charani by hitting the ball directly vertical and it looks for all money that she’s going to be out, but it lands with no fielders anywhere near it, despite having what seems like a full five minutes to get there. Voll is then almost run out on the same ball but is just safe. She taunts India for not managing to get her out from two opportunities in one ball by sweeping the next ball away for four. Voll reaches her highest score for Australia.
12th over: Australia 103-0 (Voll 68, Mooney 34)
Another over from Deepti and Voll moves to 67, presumably to the delight of the primary school kids in the crowd. Nice of her to not hit a boundary and skip that number for them. A speedy two midway through the over brings up the 100 run partnership with no wickets lost. Voll offers us her own innovative shot with a reverse sweep, but only manages a single from it.
11th over: Australia 96-0 (Voll 66, Mooney 29)
Amanjot returns and Mooney starts with a speedy two, hoping to get the runs flowing again. It’s a fairly strong over from Amanjot until Mooney pulls out a scoop on the final ball of the over to make it more expensive than India would have liked.
10th over: Australia 86-0 (Voll 65, Mooney 20)
Renuka returns to the attack and Voll plays a lovely cut shot to start the over, but there’s a well-placed fielder at the boundary, so it’s just a single. It’s a tighter over from Renuka, she’s done the job that Harmanpreet wanted her to do and slowed the flow of runs. Drinks are on the field now
9th over: Australia 81-0 (Voll 63, Mooney 18)
Sree Charani comes into the attack with her left arm orthodox spin. Mooney takes a single and Voll decides it’s time for another slog sweep, this time for the first six of the match. There’s an appeal for lbw next ball, but there’s a clear inside edge from Voll. Australia are applying some serious pressure to India here – it’s much improved batting from Sunday’s match.
8th over: Australia 69-0 (Voll 55, Mooney 14)
Our first look at spin tonight with Deepti Sharma coming into the attack. Voll uses her footwork and plays the first one fairly cautiously for a single. Mooney gets down sweeping and Deepti makes a pretty optimistic appeal for lbw, but the umpire isn’t interested. She gives the strike back to Voll who brings up her first 50 on Australian soil with a well run two, before bringing out a big slog sweep for four to finish the over.
7th over: Australia 61-0 (Voll 48, Mooney 13)
Arundhati Reddy comes on for her first over tonight after a strong performance on Sunday. Voll finds a boundary from her first ball and then some speedy and clever running gets her two from the next ball. She hands Mooney the strike, but Mooney is content to play a supporting role at the moment and rotates it straight back to Voll. Arundhati loses her line and length and Voll absolutely smacks another one to the boundary – she is looking better and better tonight.
6th over: Australia 48-0 (Voll 36, Mooney 12)
Kranti bowls her third consecutive over and Voll finds a boundary from her immediately. Voll hasn’t always looked confident or in control tonight, but she has certainly looked determined and she is really muscling her way to a strong score here tonight. Mooney gets her first look at the strike in quite a while, she’s been waiting patiently at the non-striker’s end for a couple of overs. The wait seems to have made her a little nervous, with a couple of plays and misses and a near edge to the keeper, but it sneaks past to the boundary. And that’s the end of the powerplay!
5th over: Australia 35-0 (Voll 27, Mooney 8)
Amanjot Kaur bowls her first over, coming into the team for the first time this series. Voll misjudges the length first up and plays it up in the air, but it’s well short of the field. The next ball is right in her zone and she joyfully slaps it over the field for four, before getting a leading edge and nearly ending up caught and bowled. That’s followed by a powerful straight drive for four – it’s like she’s a different player every second ball in this over!
4th over: Australia 26-0 (Voll 18, Mooney 8)
Kranti comes back for her second over and her first ball is a good one, full and straight and Mooney can only defend it. Mooney tries to be more aggressive on the second ball, with a straight drive, but it can’t beat the field. She finds a single next ball to release the pressure somewhat, but it’s good bowling from Kranti. Voll manages to get around a full ball to pull it to the boundary for four, but Kranti tightens up her line in a good comeback ball.
3rd over: Australia 20-0 (Voll 13, Mooney 7)
Renuka resumes and immediately Voll finds the first boundary of the night, opening the face of the bat and working it to the boundary for four. A single next ball that she doesn’t quite middle, but it goes over the field and falls safely to bring Mooney back on strike. She gets in on the fun, coming down the pitch to meet the ball and driving it past long off for four. Next ball she pulls away aggressively, but there’s a fielder on the boundary to restrict her to a single. Voll flirts with the field again, but lifts it high enough to come away with two runs – a great over for Australia.
2nd over: Australia 8-0 (Voll 6, Mooney 2)
Kranti begins her first over with two dots to Voll, before catching the edge, but it falls safely and Voll scampers through for one. Mooney keeps the momentum going with another single, but boundaries are not easy to come by for the openers just yet. Voll lifts one up and over the field for the first two of the match and finishes the over with a single.
1st over: Australia 3-0 (Voll 2, Mooney 1)
Renuka Singh gets us underway and Voll immediately finds a single to rotate the strike and get herself off the mark. Mooney plays her first ball very cautiously, showing the full face of the bat and defending it back to the bowler, before a more flamboyant drive to deep point for a single. Voll again rotates the strike and Mooney finishes with caution to make a strong first over for Renuka.
The teams are on the field now and we’re just about ready to get underway!
If you missed Sunday’s rain-affected match and want a quick catch up before we begin, you can find the live blog of that match right here:
Australia brings an unchanged line up into this match, obviously wanting to give the team a chance to bounce back after a shortened match the other night. India have made one change, with Amanjot Kaur coming in for Shreyanka Patil. However, the Fox commentary team have Patil listed in an unchanged line up, so there may be some confusion here. I’m bringing you the team as listed by Cricket Australia, but will update you if I become aware of any changes!
India XI
1. Smriti Mandhana
2. Shafali Verma
3. Jemimah Rodrigues
4. Harmanpreet Kaur
5. Richa Ghosh
6. Deepti Sharma
7. Arundhati Reddy
8. Kranti Gaud
9. Sree Charani
10. Renuka Singh Thakur
11. Amanjot Kaur
Australia XI
1. Beth Mooney (wk)
2. Georgia Voll
3. Phoebe Litchfield
4. Ellyse Perry
5. Ash Gardner (vc)
6. Georgia Wareham
7. Annabel Sutherland
8. Nicola Carey
9. Sophie Molineux (c)
10. Kim Garth
11. Darcie Brown
India won the toss and elected to field
Clearly India liked the way things played out for them after fielding first in the first T20, so they’re going to do it again!
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the second T20 of the series and the second match of the “Sophie Molineux era” for Australia. You may remember that the first match didn’t go swimmingly for the new captain (though swimming was certainly on the cards after a huge downpour cut the match short).
Australia could not manage to build a partnership and lost wickets with alarming regularity, putting on a total well short of par and without batting their full complement of overs. As a result, India were easily able to steer themselves ahead of DLS par before the rain hit and walked away with the first win of the series.
In contrast, today’s weather in our nation’s capital, where we lay our scene, is bright and rain-free, so both teams will need to be prepared to play a full match. For India, it will simply be about continuing their momentum – their bowling and fielding were excellent on Sunday – as well as getting the time to bat out a full innings and see what kind of total they are capable of amassing.
Australia will be looking to bounce back, and with a long line up of batters who all ended up with uncharacteristically low scores on Sunday, they are certainly capable of doing so.
Whatever happens, it’s sure to be a cracker of a match, so let’s get into it!
