Highlights
- Australia beats India by 85 runs
- Australia wins its 5th Women's T20 World Cup title
- 86,174 people turned up to watch the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Hopes were high as the Indian women’s cricket team battled against defending champions Australia in the highly-anticipated T20 World Cup final today.
But things did not go according to the plan for the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team as the Indian side could not compete with the stupendous show put up by the Australians.
Australian openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney put on a 115-run opening stand as Australia finished with 184 for 4 batting first, which prove to be a tough target for the women in blue to chase that managed to score 99 runs.
India was nervous and their fielding poor, but it was that their batters who failed and fell like a house of cards as Aussies ripped through the batting order.
The team’s youngest player and star batter Shafali Verma who shone through the tournament failed to meet the expectations, as she fell in to the third ball of the innings, caught behind off Megan Schutt.
The second shocker came for the team when Tania Bhatia was forced off the field after being hit it the head and was eventually ruled out from the remainder of the match with a concussion. She was replaced by Richa Ghosh, who made her third international appearance at the crucial decider.
And from there onwards, the team could not hold its ground that triggered a downward spiral, making it easier for the Australian side to claim their fifth World Cup title.
More than 86,000 spectators descended into the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground that can hold 100,024 people. The record for a women's sporting event is 90,185, achieved at the football World Cup final between the United States and China in Pasadena, California in 1999.
