During the second T20I of Australia Women’s tour of India 2022 in Navi Mumbai, India Women beat Australia Women in a super over to stage a comeback in this five-match series.
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A nail-biting match was a fitting arrangement on a Sunday night with no other international match being played simultaneously. In addition to over 45,000 people visiting the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, host broadcaster Star Sports Network recorded in excess of a million fans watching the match in the business end on streaming platform Disney+Hotstar.
The match was worthy of grabbing so many eyeballs months before the start of the inaugural season of the Women’s Indian Premier League as no team managed to secure a victory in spite of some 400 runs being scored across 40 overs.
Chasing a 188-run target, India managed to score 14 runs in the last over to push the match to a super over. Heroics by vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (79), opening batter Shafali Verma (34) and wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh (26*) were followed by all-rounder Devika Vaidya (11*) hitting a couple of boundaries in the final match to prevent a second consecutive loss.
Dinesh Karthik bows down to Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh
Veteran India wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik was among the many who relished an entertaining contest tonight. Karthik took to social media platform Twitter to bow down to the trio of Mandhana, Verma and Ghosh for powering India to become the first team to defeat Australia in the shortest format this year.
What an unbelievable match!
First defeat for Australia in T20I this year and in such a fashion…well played #TeamIndia 👌♥️@mandhana_smriti @TheShafaliVerma @13richaghosh take a bow! 👏#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/0yc2cvXH8L— DK (@DineshKarthik) December 11, 2022
While a 52-ball 76-run opening partnership between Mandhana and Verma put India on course to compete in a high-scoring match, batter Jemimah Rodrigues (4) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (21) failing to generate any sort of impact hurt them in the middle overs.
Mandhana, who hit nine fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 161.22 in a match-winning innings, witnessed Ghosh taking the onus on herself after her dismissal in the 17th over. With India needing 46 off 25 with seven wickets in hand at the time of Ghosh’s arrival in the middle, the 19-year old player hit three sixes at a strike rate of 200 to turn the tables.
Role reversal in the super over meant that Ghosh hitting a six first-ball six was followed by Mandhana scoring 13* (3) as India put 20 runs on the board in the decisive over of the match.
