Tri-Nation Women's T20 series: Ellyse Perry's all-round show helps Australia beat India

Ellyse Perry scored a crucial 49 with the bat and picked up 4 wickets as Australia beat India by 4 wickets.

Brief Scorecard | 3rd match, Australia Tri-Nation Women's T20 Series, Canberra

India:103-9 (20) | Smriti Mandhana 35(23), Harmanpreet Kaur 28(32); Ellyse Perry 4/13

Australia:104-6 (18.5) | Ellyse Perry 49(47), Ashleigh Gardner 22(14); Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2/18

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Australia opted to bowl first with the intention of restricting the Indians to as much low a score as possible and then go about the chase. India got off to a brilliant start as Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana grabbed 15 runs off the very first over of the innings. However, Australia's star all-rounder Ellyse Perry cleaned up Shafali Verma on the very first ball of her spell. Jemimah Rodrigues also followed cheaply and India suddenly were 16-2, with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur joining Mandhana in the middle.

Mandhana continued to play her shots as the experienced duo began to stabilise India's innings. Just when she looked set enough to bat through the innings, she was caught in the deep off the bowling of Jess Jonassen.

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Ellyse Perry came back into the attack to bowl an outstanding over which saw her taking three wickets that included Harmanpreet, wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia and all-rounder Deepti Sharma. This completely sucked all the momentum out of India's innings. Perry ended up with brilliant figures of 4/13 while Tayla Vlaeminck also chipped in with three wickets as India could manage only 103-9 in their 20 overs.

India needed early wickets in order to put pressure on Australia as they had very less runs to defend. They got off to a hopeful start as Alyssa Healy departed early but Ashleigh Gardner's quickfire 22 gave Australia a good start. But she and Beth Mooney were then dismissed quickly as Australia looked in a spot of bother a 30-3.

Again, Ellyse Perry came to Australia's rescue as she did not only stabilise Australia's innings but also brought them to the cusp of victory through a well-made 49 off 47 balls. Australia in the end won the game with four wickets in hand and an over to spare. Ellyse Perry was adjudged the player of the match due to her fantastic all-round effort.