'Aus' easy as it gets

Australia’s Alyssa Healy (right) and Beth Mooney during their 85-run opening stand in the third T20I v India at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai, yesterday. Pic/PTI

Australia skipper Alyssa Healy celebrated her 150th T20I appearance in style on Tuesday. The first Australian and fourth in the world to reach this milestone after Harmanpreet Kaur (161), Suzie Bates (152) and Danielle Wyatt (151), Healy led Australia to a 2-1 Women's T20I series triumph at the DY Patil Stadium.

Healy smashed her way to 55 (38b, 9x4, 1x6) as Australia successfully chased India's 147-6 to win by seven wickets in 18.4 overs. The win ended Australia's tour of India in an emphatic fashion; Healy's team coming back from being trounced in the one-off Test to win both the limited overs series.

Healy and Beth Mooney form a formidable pair in T20Is. In the deciding T20I, the two raised their 18th 50-plus partnership (including three hundreds), the joint most in this shortest format along Sophie Devine and Bates of New Zealand.

Dominant Healy

For the second consecutive match, Healy safely negotiated her nemesis, Renuka Singh, even scoring 15 off her third over. Healy dominated the opening stand of 85 in 10 overs.

The formalities were completed by Mooney (52', 45b, 5x4) in the company of the in-form Phoebe Litchfield (17'). Mooney, though, saw two wickets fall in succession to Pooja Vastrakar in the 16th over - Tahlia McGrath caught at mid-on for 20 and Ellyse Perry leg before for a first-ball duck.

Earlier, India's pursuit of a maiden T20I series win against Australia at home began on a positive start with Shafali Verma making the most of the field restrictions in the first six overs. Smriti Mandhana was a silent spectator as Verma hit player of the match in the second game, Kim Garth all around the wicket for fours.

Verma, however, fell for 26, edging a slower one from speedster Megan Schutt to Healy. Once Verma fell, Mandhana took it upon herself to accelerate the scoring, lofting off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner over long-off for six and followed it with one over extra-cover for four. However, she could not check her sweep against leg-spinner Georgia Wareham, finding deep midwicket fielder Gardner's hands, falling for 29. Mandhana was the second victim in a sequence of three wickets falling in successive overs.

Also Read: Ranji Trophy: Skipper Shams Mulani delighted over Mumbai's win against Bihar

Kaur's poor form continues

In the preceding over, the eighth of the innings, Jemimah Rodrigues pulled the impressive Annabel Sutherland to deep midwicket Georgia Wareham for two while in the 10th, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur edged Sutherland on to her stumps for three, finishing a series of poor scores (0 in Test, 9, 5, 3 in ODIs and 6, 3 in T20Is) against Australia in all formats over three weeks. Kaur aggregated 26 in six innings combined.

From 66-4 at the halfway stage, India's total gained momentum through the big-hitting Richa Ghosh, who cleared the boundary with ease thrice including one over the fence for an 80m hit. Ghosh's 28-ball 34 and her stands of 33 for the fifth wicket with Deepti Sharma and 36 for the next with Amanjot Kaur helped India add 81 in the second set of 10 overs.

Brief scores
India 147-6 in 20 overs (R Ghosh 34; A Sutherland 2-12, G Wareham 2-14) lost to Australia 149-3 in 18.4 overs (A Healy 55, B Mooney 52'; P Vastrakar 2-26) by 7 wickets