India Women Beat Australia by 17 Runs, Seal Series 2–1 in Thrilling T20 Clash

India Women won by 17 runs and sealed the series 2-1. They played really well with both bat and ball and clearly outperformed the home team. This strong win will give them a lot of confidence for the rest of the multi-format series. They now lead the series on points 4-2.

India won the toss and elected to bat first. Shefali Verma and Smriti Mandhana did not start on the most fluent note as they were mistiming a few early on. Shefali fell early as she hit one straight up. At 19/1 Jemimah Rodrigues walked in. She infused intent immediately. Started scoring boundaries and Smiti too joined that. Eventually Jemimah slowed down and Smriti took the lead.

India Women Clinch Series 2–1 After 17-Run Victory Over Australia

They notched up a 121-run stand with Smriti doing the bulk of the scoring. She was eventually dismissed for a thundering 82 and the score was 140/2 with that. Jemimah also got to her 50. However, after the wicket of Smriti, India sort of encountered a collapse. From 140/1 they slipped to 176/6 by the end of 20 overs. It looked like a good score around par at the halfway stage but surely, they were heading for more. The pick of the bowlers for Australia was Annabel Sutherland with 2-34 next to her name.

The chase started on the perfect tone for Australia. 18 came off the first over from Renuka Thakur and it looked like Australia are up for the challenge. However, in a stunning turn of events, Australia collapsed to lose 3 quick wickets post that in the powerplay. Georgia Voll, Beth Mooney and Ellyse Perry, all played false shots to bring their downfall and Australia were struggling at 32/3 inside 4 overs.

There was a rebuild by Ashleigh Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield. However, every time Australia looked to wrestle momentum, India pulled it back. Litchfield was taken out as she attempted the reverse sweep too often. Gardner had two more decent partnerships with Georgia Wareham and Annabel Sutherland. Those partnerships kept the Aussies in the game.

However, Gardner's wicket was the turning point in the game. It came courtesy of an absolute stunner by Jemimah Rodrigues at deep midwicket. That is when the collapse button was triggered. Gardner was dismissed for 57. She was followed by Grace Harris who was dismissed as hit-wicket and the rest of the batting just crumbled to fall 17 runs short of India. The pick of the bowlers for India were Shreyanka Patil (3-22) and Shree Charani (3-32).

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IND VS SA 43rd T20I World Cup 2026: Where to Watch India vs South Africa, H2H, Playing 11 & Full Match Details The 43rd T20I match of the super 8 T20I World Cup 2026 will play between India will face the South Africa on Sunday, 22nd February, at 7:00 PM.

by Dwijesh February 20, 2026