Australia v India: T20 international cricket tri-series final – live!

Gardner’s gone! Out of nowhere really. It’s a quiet over of mediums from Arundhati Reddy, who also throws in a bouncer at very modest pace. Fourth ball of the over, it’s fuller and Gardner aims a big off-side drive, but doesn’t have much shape as she swings at that ball. It goes high to cover, where Gayakward can’t stop being chased by the ball, but this time she takes the catch and can try to put her early wobbles behind her.

8th over: Australia 52-1 (Mooney 22, Gardner 25) Gayakwad will get her chance to do something with the ball now. It hasn’t gone so well in the field. She’s happy to come around the wicket to the right-handed Gardner, over to Mooney. Tight lines, making Gardner scramble a single that was nearly a run-out, then she’s bowling a nice line that Mooney edges and is missed! Not a drop, that was nicked past the keeper, a bit too high and fast for Bhatia to get gloves near it. But another false shot for Mooney, though it nets her two runs with a good save on the rope.

7th over: Australia 47-1 (Mooney 18, Gardner 24) Radha Yadav now, left-arm twirler, really gives the ball air. She’s second ranked in the world in this format at the moment. Over the wicket, and Mooney laces a drive through cover for four. But nearly runs herself out next ball, tapping to cover for a single, and Harmanpreet’s throw is too hot for Radha to gather in time at the bowler’s end. Just yanked that throw and dragged it a bit wide. Gardner then nearly outhinks herself as Radha bowls outside leg stump. Gardner nearly plays, decides to leave it to score the wide, then realises she’s walked out of her crease. Has to scramble to get back. Radha Yadav ends the over with a couple of loopy full tosses, and Gardner only gets two from the first but sweeps the second even harder, and it hits Gayakwad on the fence hard enough to spill through.

6th over: Australia 35-1 (Mooney 13, Gardner 18) Pandey to the left-hander now, and stays on the leg-stump line preferred by the spinner, thundering one into Mooney’s pad. Goes wider outside off and Mooney is dropped! Oh, that’s a shocker. A simple catch as Mooney advances, swings, looping outside edge to backward point, and Rajeshwari Gayakwad has shelled it. Only had to move a few steps, nice gentle angle, and yet it lands in her cupped hands and her cup runneth over. Pandey groans. They take a single. A few more dots to Gardner, then one more boundary lifted over long-off. That makes 24 dot balls and one wicket in the Powerplay.

5th over: Australia 29-1 (Mooney 12, Gardner 13) Harmanpreet persisting with Deepti Sharma for a third over in the Powerplay. Interesting call in T20 cricket where so many captains ring the changes every over. But Deepti is managing this beautifully. She’s stayed over the wicket to the left-hander, who is taking guard well outside leg stump to try and open up cover. Well, Deepti is alive to that, and is spearing the ball in at Mooney’s pads, nowhere near the stumps. Four times in a row, Mooney tries to play with a fairly straight bat and can’t get any purchase on that line near her stumps. Finally, frustrated, she gallops down and slaps a shot just over mid-off! Nearly caught, but gets four. Last ball of the over, Deepti drops a bit too short and Mooney is able to unleash her sweep shot cleanly over short fine for four more!

4th over: Australia 21-1 (Mooney 4, Gardner 13) Pandey to Gardner once more, and working the batter perfectly by holding the ball back of a length, outside off. Gardner swishes but misses. Fuller next, but Gardner mistimes a clunky drive hard into the ground for nothing. Fuller still with the third, and Gardner lofts it clean down the ground for four! One bounce over mid-on, nice and easy. So Pandey addresses that, shifting wider again, better length and curling away! Gardner misses completely. Fifth ball, Pandey tucks her up on off stump, leaving Gardner trying to sprint a single after dropping to point, but there’s no run with the left-handed Radha Yadav at point. Last ball of the over, Pandey is all over Gardner now! Fuller, but just pulled back enough to get a bit of swing! Gardner swings hard aiming over long off but misses completely. Like the last over, five dots and a boundary. This is good work from India’s bowlers.

3rd over: Australia 17-1 (Mooney 4, Gardner 9) It’s taken until the third over but Mooney finally gets a chance to get off the mark. She’d only faced one ball before this. Deepti bowls to her, over the wicket, landing a dipping off-break well enough but Mooney is briskly down the wicket, to the pitch, and waiting to drive it inside-out over cover. Four runs with the fielding restrictions still in place. That’s Mooney’s strength: she doesn’t bother hitting sixes because she can find the fence so often. Deepti tightens right up thereafter though, hitting a good in-between length that leaves Mooney unsure whether to move forward or back, and darting in some faster ones to discourage the advance. Five dot balls in a row! What a recovery from the all-rounder.

2nd over: Australia 13-1 (Mooney o, Gardner 9) Shikha Pandey to bowl next, outswing seamer to contrast with Deepti’s swing. And she sets up a proper seamer’s battle with Gardner. First ball, overpitched and driven through the covers for four. Third ball, perfect length and swinging, beating the outside edge of a drive! Fourth ball, sucking Gardner into the drive again, getting a chunk of it and scoring four but that skewed in the air over cover point and was so nearly caught! Just luck took it far enough into the gap. Final ball of the over, Gardner is tentatively prodding at an outswinger pitched further back, missing again as she was neither here nor there with her shot. Great tussle.

1st over: Australia 5-1 (Mooney o, Gardner 1) So Ash Gardner reaches the crease early in the day once again, as she has done a lot lately with Healy’s recent run of low scores. Gardner enjoyed it last time, battering 90-odd against India, although they tracked down Australia’s total in the end.

And we’re away with a wicket! Healy gets a good start by tugging Deepti Sharma’s off-break square of the wicket for four, but when the line switches to wide outside off Healy aims a big cut shot and only gets the edge. Should have smashed that really, but maybe a bit of extra bounce? “How was that, how was that!” yells Bhatia, who took it well after moving across outside the off stump. It’s outski.

You’re not listening to me, Australia!

Or perhaps given that defending has been a recent weakness, the Aussies would like a chance to try that again and do it better.

The teams: two left-arm spinners for India as has been the style recently. Two seaming all-rounders for Australia, plus the pace of Vlaeminck.

India
Shafali Verma
Smriti Mandhana
Jemimah Rodrigues
Harmanpreet Kaur *
Deepti Sharma
Taniya Bhatia +
Richa Ghosh
Shikha Pandey
Rajeshwari Gayakwad
Arundhati Reddy
Radha Yadav

Australia
Alyssa Healy +
Beth Mooney
Ash Gardner
Meg Lanning *
Ellyse Perry
Rachael Haynes
Nicola Carey
Annabel Sutherland
Jess Jonassen
Megan Schutt
Tayla Vlaeminck