With the help of Megan Schutt’s hat-trick, Australian women cricket team defeated India by 36 runs in the fourth T20I match of the Paytm Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tri-series being played at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on Monday.

With the defeat, Indian women team crash out of the Tri-series.

Earlier, after winning the toss, Harmanpreet Kaur invited Meg Lanning’s squad to bat first and propelled by Elyse Villani’s 61-run knock, which included 10 boundaries, the Aussie side managed to set a respected target of 187 runs in front of the Indian team to win.

Following the target of 187 runs, India squad was not able to do much as they lost opener Smriti Mandhana and India’s ODI skipper Mithali Raj in the second over to Megan Schutt.

Following Mithali (0) and Mandhana’s (3) departure, Deepti Sharma (2) joined Jemimah Rodrigues at the crease and just added nine runs for third wickets before she was bowled out by Megan Schutt and just like that, Aussie bowler took the first hat-trick of her T20I career.

After Deepti’s dismissal, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur joined Rodrigues at the crease and added 54 runs off 52 balls for the fourth wicket, a partnership that was too slow for T20I cricket.

Delissa Kimmince broke Kaur- Rodrigues’ partnership by sending 17-year-old cricketer back to stand at the score of 50.

After Rodrigues’s departure, Kaur followed her to the stand.

Meanwhile, Anuja Patil scored 38 runs off 26 deliveries with the strike rate of 146 and Pooja scored 19 runs off 14 balls.

Earlier in the day, Australia all-rounder Elyse Villani and opener Beth Mooney score half-centuries and helped Aussie women team score 186 runs for 5 wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

Pooja Vastraker did not let the Aussie team have a good start as she sent wicket-keeper batsman Alyssa Healy (9) back to the pavilion in the second over. After Healy’s dismissal, Ashleigh Gardner joined Mooney at the crease but was not able to do much as she was also sent back by Pooja.

However, Elyse Villani along with Beth Mooney (71) stabilised Aussie innings and put up a 114-run partnership for the third wicket.

Poonam Yadav broke Villani and Mooney’s partnership by removing Villani (61) from the crease.

From India, Pooja Vastrakar took two wickets. Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav and Jhulan Goswami took one wicket each.

Fall of wickets:

Australia:

12-1 (Alyssa Healy, 1.5), 29-2 (Ashleigh Gardner, 3.5), 143-3 (Elyse Villani, 15.3), 173-4 (Beth Mooney, 18.4), 175-5 (Ellyse Perry, 19.1)

India:

15-1 (Smriti Mandhana, 1.5), 15-2 (Mithali Raj, 1.6), 26-3 (Deepti Sharma, 4.1), 80-4 (Jemimah Rodrigues, 12.3), 97-5 (Harmanpreet Kaur, 13.5)

Teams:

Australia Women (Playing XI): Alyssa Healy (wk), Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Elyse Villani, Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes, Ellyse Perry, Delissa Kimmince, Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt, Amanda Wellington

India Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Radha Yadav, Jemimah Rodrigues, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Anuja Patil, Jhulan Goswami, Poonam Yadav