TE24 Sports Desk:
Rising stars Australia defeated India in a nine-run Twenty20 thriller on Sunday to win their maiden gold medal in women’s cricket at the Commonwealth Games.
Opener Beth Mooney top-scored with 61 as Australia cruised to 161-8 in their 20 overs in the warm Birmingham sun.
India expected an unexpected win as they led 118 for 2 in the 15th over, but a flurry of wickets delayed the onslaught. They still found the limit to continue the contest, needing 11 runs and he took two wickets to reach the final.
However, Magnassin was driven wide off his second ball and was caught by Yasti Kabatiya on the next ball. The win highlighted the dominance of the Australian women, who are also world champions in the 20-over and 50-over formats. Australia looked better than ever after posting 83-1 in 10 overs.
Tahlia McGrath was the next player to reverse her point and take a nice catch to Yadav.
Australia, losing wickets regularly in the face of India’s impressive display on the field, could not build the momentum they hoped for. Muni was dismissed after 18 overs after a brilliant catch by Deepti Sharma.
In Australia, India were restricted to just 36 runs in their last 5th over and took 5 wickets. India collected 12 points from the first over but lost form opener Smriti Mandhana to the bold Darcy Brown.
Shafali Verma, 11, was caught by a skier in his third over at McGrath who was cleared to play despite testing positive for the coronavirus.
However, Jemimah Rodriguez and her captain Harmanpreet Kaur rebuilt the innings roughly with most of India’s support at Edgbaston.
However, Rodriguez was bowled by Megan Shutt for 33 in 15 overs as India looked to take the game away from Australia by 96. The next ball was 65 and they remained 121-5.
They continued to chase but eventually went too far and were bowled out for 152, with three balls to spare in the innings. New Zealand beat England by eight wickets in the bronze medal match on Sunday.
The home team won the toss and elected to bat but could only muster 110-9 in 20 overs. But the total seemed below average.
With Susie Bates (20) and Georgia Plummer (4) defying the loss, New Zealand scored 46 in just four overs and reached the target in eight overs. New Zealand captain Sophie Devine scored 51 runs instead of 40 balls.
