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The Australian Women's team sealed the three-game series 2-0 after beating India by three runs in the second ODI. Playing at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, the Southern Stars started with bat and had to battle tough conditions as scoring runs seemed difficult. After losing captain Alyssa Healy at the score of 10, Phoebe Litchfield and Ellyse Perry built massive to carry Australia out of trouble.
The Litchfield-Perry posted a 77-run stand when the Aussie number three departed at a score of 50. Litchfield continued scoring quickly before failing prey to debutant Shreyanka Patil at 63. Alongside these performances and a few cameos, Team India dropped seven catches as Australia managed to post a competitive 253-run total.
In the second innings, the Indian women had similar struggles with batters managing to get starts but failing to convert them into big scores. But this wasn't the case for Richa Ghosh, who played an incredible knock of 96 in 117 with 13 fours. Playing at number three, Ghosh built crucial partnerships with Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma but failed to take her team over the line. In the end, Aussie seamer Annabel Sutherland, who picked up three wickets and defended 15 in the final over, was named the Player of the Match.
Talking about this performance, Sutherland said, " It was good fun. It was a team effort in the field. Just held our nerves as much as possible. We were able to hold on towards the end. Was trying to keep the stumps in play as much as possible. She (Healy) showed faith in me and I delivered. Try to read the game as much as possible. Experience comes playing franchise cricker and domestic cricket back home. Just try to trust my instincts. I thought it was tricky, it was slow and there was spin. Alana King was unbelievable with her striking towards the end. We needed that to get to that total. We went into the break with momentum on our side."
