Australia showed their ruthless side to win the series

Australia showed their ruthless side to win the series

A completely professional all-round show from Australia saw them register a thumping seven-wicket win over India in the T20I series decider at the DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday (January 9). By ethicalness of this result, the Title holders stashed the three-match series 2-1.

Fifties from Alyssa Healy (55 off 38) and Beth Mooney (52* off 45) made short work of the run chase with India's total of 147 clearly proving to be about 15-20 runs short. The win, however, was set up by Australia's bowling, notably Annabel Sutherland (2-12) and Georgia Wareham (2-24), to restrict the home side.

Put into bat, India did get off to a brisk start through their openers. Shafali Verma showed great intent and seemed in fine touch, as did her partner Smriti Mandhana at the flip side. Crucially for them, the shot selection matched their intent for the first few overs as India got off to a flying start. Shafali dished out some of her trademark ball-striking while Mandhana was all touch in her strokeplay. Australia were feeling the squeeze initially but as they do so often, bounced back once the partnership was broken. The center overs were dominated by the visitors who struck at regular intervals to disrupt India's energy.  (Read More Australia Steve Smith as opener for Adelaide Test over specialist

Shafali tumbled to a sharp catch from Healy standing up to the stumps while Mandhana holed out to the profound after looking in ominous touch. In between their dismissals, the short ball ploy disposed of Jemimah Rodrigues cheaply and it was trailed by one more failure from Harmanpreet Kaur. Deepti Sharma also fell after a scratchy little innings.

The Indian innings nosedived and seemed set for another underwhelming finish. Be that as it may, Richa Ghosh and Amanjot Kaur added 36 off just 27 balls to infuse some life into the innings. The innings also got the ideal finish with Pooja Vastrakar slamming the final ball for a six.

In any case, 147 was still an under-par score and the Aussie openers proved it very early with Healy going great guns in the powerplay. She started slowly before unleashing her power game against all the bowlers. Having endured a very underwhelming tour by her standards, the Australian captain managed to sign off in style. (Read More Women Cricket Series News Australia and india)

Beth Mooney took her time and compiled a fifty of her own as the visitors cruised in the run chase. There was a snapshot of controversy with the score at 60/0 when Healy slashed one to point for Rodrigues to take a catch and it looked good enough in real time. But the third umpire after numerous replays seemed hesitant to preclude it and Healy got a fortunate respite.

As if to re-awaken old animosities of India's players, Healy continued to release before falling to Deepti. There was a short snapshot of euphoria for the home side when Vastrakar eliminated Tahlia McGrath and Ellyse Perry off successive deliveries but the game was virtually over by then. Mooney held one end up and the in-form Phoebe Litchfield finished off things rapidly to give another silverware to the Australian side.

After being 0-1 down in the series and strangely inconsistent across the first two games, Healy's side came to the fore when it mattered, similar to they oftentimes do in high-pressure games. (Read More Cricket News,3rd T20I India Women vs Australia Women won by 7 wkts

Brief scores: India 147/7 in 20 overs (Richa Ghosh 34, Smriti Mandhana 29; Annabel Sutherland 2-12, Georgia Wareham 2-24) lost to Australia 149/3 in 18.4 overs (Alyssa Healy 55, Beth Mooney 52*; Pooja Vastrakar 2-26) by 7 wickets.