Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris star as Australia women dominate India by 54 runs to seal series 4-1

India women lost the final match of the T20I series, succumbing 1-4 to the Australians on Tuesday, 20 December. Up against the best white ball side in the world, India failed to give a reply to the Australian middle-order performance, which took their total to a massive 196/4 in 20 overs.

India had already lost the series coming into this game and had nothing but pride to play for. Harmanpreet Kaur's women started off well in the match, reducing Australia to 67/4 inside the first four overs. However, as it looked like India could keep Australia restricted to 150 and have a good shot at the game, the hopes quickly went away, courtesy a tremendous partnership between Ashleigh Gardner and Grace Harris.

Both women scored respective half-centuries and put on a 129-run stand, taking their total to a mammoth 196/4 in 20 overs. Gardner remained not out at 66 off 32 balls, while Harris hit 64* off 35 deliveries.

In reply, India failed to threaten



losing Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma early in the game, Barring Harleen Deol's 24 off 16 and Deepti Sharma's 53 off 34. Australia's Heather Graham was the destructor in chief picking up four wickets, that included a hat-trick.

Graham dismissed Devika Vaidya and Radha Yadav in the last two balls of the 13th over and then dismissed Renuka Singh in the first ball of the final over the game. She further dismissed Deepti Sharma in the final ball of the match to complete a four-fer.

Deepti was alone in counter-attacking the Australian bowling attack and was the last wicket to fall for India in the final ball of the match, which meant that the hosts got bowled out for 142 runs in their 20 overs. Her attacking intent was praised by the watchers of the game, who took to Twitter to state that she was a bright spark in India's poor outing on the day.

The game marked India's forgettable outing in the series where they were outplayed in most matches.