Ind v Aus, 3rd WT20 | Perry, Harris and bowlers deliver for Aussies
The Hindu
Elysse Perry smashed a 47-ball 75 (9x4, 3x6) to help Australia beat India in the third T20I
Elysse Perry hadn’t batted in a T20I for a year and two months. The noisy crowd that turned to watch her taking apart an improved Indian bowling attack at the Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday night may have wondered why.
The all-rounder smashed a 47-ball 75 (9x4, 3x6) to help Australia beat India in the third T20I. The visitors avenged their rare loss, at Navi Mumbai three days ago, and moved into a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Riding on Perry’s magnificent knock and a quick-fire 41 (18b, 4x4, 3x6) from Grace Harris took Australia to 172 for eight. In reply, India finished at 151 for seven, losing by 21 runs.
Opener Shafali Verma (52, 41b, 6x4, 3x6) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (37, 27b, 6x4) had kept India in the hunt, with their 73-run stand for the fourth wicket), but the target seemed too big for those came after them. It was a fine bowling effort by Australia, spearheaded by the pacy Darcie Brown.
Earlier, Australia had got off to a poor start, for the first time in the series. Skipper Alyssa Healy was trapped lbw by Renuka Singh with a ball that came sharply in.
Then Anjali Sarvani, in only her third game for India, took her maiden wicket, a valuable one at that, of Tahlia McGrath, who only this week moved to the No. 1 ranking in the ICC’s T20 ranking for batters. The impressive left-arm seamer got one to move in through the gate to dismiss McGrath for the first time in this series.
However, the woman she swapped her ICC ranking with, Beth Mooney, continued to carry on from where she left off at Navi Mumbai, about an hour’s drive from here. Mooney (30, 22b, 4x4) was joined in the middle by Perry and added 64 for the third wicket.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.