Outplayed by England in the previous league match, Australia returned to winning ways by scoring a second win against India in the T20 tri-series at the Brabourne Stadium here on Monday.
Medium-pacer Megan Schutt claimed a hat-trick in two overs — 1.5 (Smriti Mandhana), 1.6 (Mithali Raj) and 4.1 (Deepti Sharma) — to put the home team under immense pressure in the first PowerPlays.
Set a target of 187, India lost by 36 runs and was eliminated from the title match.
Told by team by coach Tushar Arothe during the innings break that she would open the innings, Jemimah Rodrigues scored her maiden half-century.
It was not a flawless knock. She hit the ball twice in the air that even the tall Australia fielders were unable to reach, at mid-off on the circle and wide of mid-on. But, the 17-year-old showed nerves of steel, a great deal of technique and cricketing sense to make a 41-ball 50 with eight hits to the fence.
Eventually, Jemimah lofted the ball to Megan off Delissa Kimmince in the middle of the 13th over after putting on 54 for the fourth wicket with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.
At no time did India give the impression of pressing hard in pursuit of a stiff target, that started at nine plus an over. Harmanpreet hit a six and four off off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner, but with the run rate climbing to 12 plus, she fell in the 14th over.
After the exit of Jemimiah and Harmanpreet, Anuja Patil and Pooja Vastrakar played out 37 balls without taking much risk and added 53 for the unbeaten sixth wicket, 37 runs short of the target.
India chose to field, but, though Pooja made two breakthroughs, Harmanpreet did not have quality bowlers to prevent Australia’s Beth Mooney (71, 41b, 8x4) and Elyse Villani (61, 42b, 10x4) from raising 114 for the third wicket off 70 balls.
Tuesday is a rest day.
The scores:
Australia 186 for five in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 71, Elyse Villani 61; Pooja Vastrakar two for 28) bt India 150 for five in 20 overs (Jemimah Rodrigies 50, Harmanpreet Kaut 33 n.o., Anuja Patil 38 n.o.; Megan Schutt three for 31).
