Australia Stuns India by 17 Runs in Thrilling Canberra T20 to Level Series

Canberra. In a thrilling contest held in Canberra on Thursday, the home team Australia stunned the Indian women's team by 17 runs.

With this victory, Australia has made a comeback in the three-match T20 series, leveling it at 1-1. The third match, scheduled for Saturday, will now be the decisive 'final' of the series.

Batting first after losing the toss, Australia set a challenging total of 163 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Opener Georgia Ware was the hero of Australia's win. She played an aggressive innings of 88 runs off 57 balls, including 11 fours and 1 six.

She was strongly supported by Beth Mooney, who scored 46 runs. Although Australia looked set for a big score after the two shared an excellent 128-run opening partnership, Indian bowlers managed to pull back the run rate in the final overs. Arundhati Reddy took a maximum of 2 wickets for India.

Chasing a target of 164 runs, the Indian team had a very encouraging start. Openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana gave the team hopes of victory by scoring 54 runs in the powerplay. However, after Shafali was dismissed in the seventh over, the Indian batting order faltered.

Although Captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored 36 runs and Richa Ghosh played somewhat composedly, India dramatically lost 6 wickets for a mere 7-run difference after the fourth-wicket partnership was broken. Ultimately, India could only manage 144 runs for the loss of 9 wickets.

For Australia, Ashleigh Gardner bowled lethally, taking 3 wickets, while Kim Garth, Annabel Sutherland, and Sophie Molineux shared 2 wickets each.

Georgia Ware, who played a magnificent innings of 88 runs, was declared the 'Player of the Match'. The decisive clash between the two countries will now take place on February 21 at the Adelaide Oval.