Melbourne: Defending champions Australia clinched their record fifth ICC Women’s T20 World Cup title, after thrashing India by 85 runs in the final at the iconic MCG on Sunday.
With this win, Australia have now won five World Cup titles -2010, 2012 , 2014, 2018, 2020.
Chasing a huge total of 185, India got off to a horrible start losing in-form opener Shafali Verma in the third ball of the first over.
In the very next over, Taniya Bhatia went off the field too after getting hit on the helmet. Jemimah Rodrigues who came to bat next, also couldn’t do much and got out soon, leaving India reeling at 8 for 2.
All the eyes were on senior pros Smriti Mandhana and captain Harmanpreet Kaur to pull the Indian team out of trouble. But, Mandhana (11) fell to Sophie Molineux in the 4th over before Harmanpreet (4) was dismissed in the last over of the powerplay.
Deepti Sharma (33), Veda Krishnamurthy (19) and concussion substitute Richa Ghosh (18) contributed with cameos but could not help India get close to the target. The wickets kept falling as India got all out for 99 runs with five balls to go.
Megan Schutt took four wickets, Jess Jonassen took three wickets while Sophie Molineux, Delissa Kimmince, Nicola Carey picked one wicket each for Australia.