Canberra, February 19 A record opening stand between Georgia Voll and Beth Mooney paved the way for Australia to level a three-match T20I series with a 19-run victory against India in the second match here on Thursday.
Voll and Mooney added 128 runs for the first wicket to register Australia's highest opening stand against India in T20Is, with the hosts posting 163 for 5.
India, despite making a sparkling start to the chase, crumbled in the end to finish at 144 for nine. Ashleigh Gardner claimed 3/22, while Kim Garth, Annabel Sutherland, and Australia captain Sophie Molineux each took two wickets.
The series-deciding third T20I will be played at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
India were 65/1 in the ninth over when their innings began to unravel as the visitors lost six wickets for seven runs in the final overs.
India got off to a quick start as Shafali Verma's early fireworks was followed by Smriti Mandhana's contribution. The two Indian openers put on 54 in the powerplay to put the team on track for the chase.
However, Molineux brought the breakthrough by dismissing Shafali leg-before for 29 off 23 balls (5 fours), and Gardner got the key wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues (4).
India's run-rate slowed down with the consecutive wickets, and a third followed soon when Mandhana was caught by Mooney off Garth.
With India struggling at 71 for three, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (30) and Richa Ghosh (19) joined forces and added 55 runs for the fourth wicket.
However, the required run rate kept increasing, which in turn forced the Indians to take unnecessary risks. Harmanpreet was caught by her counterpart Molineux off Garth on the penultimate ball of the 17th over at extra cover, and three balls later, Ghosh was stumped by Gardner.
India's hopes suffered another setback when Gardner had Deepti Sharma (0) caught by Sutherland in the 18th over, with India slipping to 128 for six.
Earlier, Voll (88) and Mooney (46) recorded the best-ever opening partnership for Australia of 128 runs against India, with the hosts posting 163 for five.
Arundhati Reddy, who saw a catch being dropped off her final ball in the innings off Ashleigh Gardner (10 not out), once again delivered the goods, dismissing both the Australian openers to return 4-0-30-2.
Voll and Mooney bettered the first-wicket stand in women's T20Is for Australia against India, which was of 115 runs set by the pair of Alyssa Healy and Mooney in March 2020 at Melbourne.
With the right-handed Voll taking the lead from the start, the experienced Mooney played a perfect second fiddle, but narrowly missed her milestone.
Voll made the most of some loose bowling from the Indians to score 88 off 57 balls, including 11 fours and one six. She exploited the gaps with precision and displayed a range of strokes on either side of the wickets to get her runs.
Mooney was caught at mid-on by Shafali Verma off Arundhati on the penultimate ball of the 15th over. The left-handed opener scored 46 runs off 39 balls, including four fours.
Brief Scores: Australia Women 163 for 5 in 20 overs (Georgia Voll 88, Beth Mooney 46; Arundhati Reddy 2/30) beat India Women 144/9 (Harmanpreet Kaur 36, Ashleigh Gardner 3/22) by 19 runs.
