ICC Women’s World T20: Smriti Mandhana’s 83 gives India victory over Australia

The Indian women’s team led by Harmanpreet Kaur continued with their winning run in the ICC Women’s World T20 with their 48-run win over heavyweights Australia in the Group match on Saturday.

Batting first India rode on Smriti Mandhana’s sparkling 83 off 55 balls and a supportive yet innings of 43 from 27 deliveries by skipper Kaur to post a competitive 165/8 at the end of their 20 overs.

India’s start particularly didn’t go the way they would have loved to as they found themselves struggling at 49/2 at 6.3 overs. But it was Mandhana who single-handedly held fort at one end, never really allowing the innings to slip away and result in a disaster.

In what was a target that was expected to be chased down by Australian standards, the Indian bowlers were the ones to spring a surprise as they kept on chipping away at the wickets to never really allow the chase to settle down. The leader of the pack was Anuja Patil with three wickets while the initial damage was done by Deepti Sharma, scalping both the wickets of Villaini and Mooney.

India thus progressed to the semi-finals with an unbeaten record and are looking for the title this time around.