Titas, openers shine as Indian women thrash Australia in 1st T20I

 

Indian women scripted a crushing 9 wicket win over the world champions Australia women in the first T20I at Wankhede stadium Mumbai.  After dismissing Australia for 141 in 20 overs courtesy fine bowling and sensational fielding, India knocked off the winning runs in style losing only 1 wicket. 

First, Bengal's Titus Sadhu took four wickets.  This was followed by Smriti Mandhana and Shefali Verma's hundreds with the bat.  India crushed Australia by 9 wickets in the first T20 match under the power of these three girls.  Harmanpreet Kaur's India took a 1-0 lead in the T20I despite losing each match in the one-day series.

 Winning the toss, Harmanpreet's decision to bowl first became crucial.  India played the aggressor from the beginning.  That is the success.  Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy started well for Australia.  Titas gave the first blow to Australia by dismissing Mooney (17) who was  caught by Harmanpreet Kaur  at midoff.    Renuka Singh picked up Healy (8) in the next over.  Titus Sadhu , the Bengal quick bowler then  took two successive wickets in her second and the team's sixth overs.  She sent back the ever dangerous Tahlia McGrath (0) with the fifth ball caught at third man and then Ashley Gardner (0) was  caught and bowled by  Titus in the very next ball.

 At one time Australia lost 4 wickets for 33 runs.  From there, the Indian team failed to stop Australia with less runs.  Elysse  Perry and Phoebe Lichfield's pair took Australia to a decent score.  Litchfield was dropped twice but she played a sparkling knock with improvised shots .   In the end she scored an enterprising 49 runs off 32 balls.  After the 10th over, the runs were increasing rapidly.    Perry scored a solid 37 runs but the lower order struggled to score and lost cheap wickets .  Apart from Titus and Renuka, Shreyanka Patil and Deepti Sharma took two wickets each and everyone of them bowled skillfully to outplay the Aussie batters . 

 India's two openers did not face any problems chasing runs.  It didn't look like India lost the one-day series so badly .  Smriti and Shefali continued to play from the beginning.  At one point it seemed that India would win by 10 wickets.  But Smriti returned five runs short of the target.  Scored a dazzling 54 runs off 52 balls with the help of 7 fours and 1 six and all the shots played with exquisite timing .  Shefali remained unbeaten on an explosive 64 off 44 balls as she played imperious strokes driving , cutting , flicking and lofting with disdain .  The winning run came from the bat of Jemaima Rodrigues (6). Titas Sadhu for her 4/17 was the player of the match as India took a 1-0 lead in the 3 match series .