Series already clinched, Indian women lose to Aus in 3rd T20I

Sydney A historic series triumph already sealed the Indian womens cricket team faltered in its quest for a cleansweep as it went down by 15 runs to Australia in the third and final Twenty20 International following a spectacular batting collapse here todayChasing a victory target of 137 the Indians who pocketed the series after winning the first two games were comfortably placed at 94 for 3 in 133 overs before a middleorder collapse led them to end at 121 for 8 at the SCGThe Indians scored just 27 runs from the last 63 overs and lost five wickets in the process to hand Australia a consolation winOpening batsman Vellaswamy Vanitha topscored with a 25ball 28 which was laced with three boundaries and a six while Harmanpreet Kaur 24 was the next notable contributor as the Indians gathered runs at a brisk pace but at the same time kept losing wicketsThe visiting side made a flying start by scoring 33 runs from 44 overs for the first wicket between Vanitha and captain Mithali Raj 12 After two quick wickets the Indians picked up the pace and were comfortably placed at 94 for 3 in the 14th over needing roughly runaball for a win at that stageBut three quick wickets put paid to Indias hopes as Kaur Auja Patil 3 and playeroftheseries Jhulan Goswami 1 were dismissed in the space of 23 overs and for the addition of just 10 runs In fact India lost two wickets in the 16th over that ultimately made the difference in the matchFrom a runaball situation India needed 27 from the last two overs and 23 from the final over They could not accomplish the task though the Indians will return home with their head held high after their historic feat of winning their maiden series over mighty AustraliaFor Australia Ellyse Perry produced an allround show to deny India a cleansweep She hit an unbeaten 55 after Australia were put into bat before claiming 412 in the Indian run chase Pacer Goswami was economical in her four overs giving away 21 runs in her four overs while Rajeshwari Gayakwad claimed two wickets for 36 runs Medium pacer Deepti Sharma 119 was also impressive in her T20 debutEarlier Australia posted 1365 as Goswamis excellent bowling and visiting sides sharp work on the field again made life difficult for the hostsA key partnership of 28 from the final 12 balls from Perry and Alex Blackwell 4 not out added crucial late runs to take the hosts to a decent total It was a familiar tale for the Aussies at the toss skipper Meg Lanning on the wrong end of the flip of the coin for the third time in a row as India captain Mithali Raj again sent the hosts inAlyssa Healy was shifted to the top of the order switching positions with Grace Harris after the latters twin ducks in the first two matches But Goswami ensured it was another disastrous start for the hosts dismissing Healy with the very first ball of thematch It did not take long for Beth Mooney to find her groove scoring two boundaries from the second over and Lanning joined in the fun by striking two excellent sixesAustralia then struggled to find someone to carry on with their innings with first Lanning caught out in the deep on 26 before another promising start from Mooney ended with the opener on 34 After scores of 19 and 4 in the opening two games Ellyse Perry made another cautious start including some audacious reverse sweeps using the back of the bat before she and Harris struck two sixes in as many ballsBut the trend of the Southern Stars batting this series continued Just when they started to look threatening Indias sharp fielding proved their undoing with a direct hit from Harmanpreet Kaur removing Harris for 9 leaving the Southern Stars 974 after 152 oversSome late hitting from Perry helped them to 1365 at the end of their 20 overs as the allrounder finished unbeaten on 55 from 41 balls She brought up the milestone with a six from the final ball of the innings