| Commonwealth Games T20 Gold Medal Match, Edgbaston: |
| Australia 161-8 (20 overs): Mooney 61 (41 balls), Lanning 36 (26 balls) |
| India 152 (19.3 surplus): Harmanpreet 65 (43 balls), Rodrigues 33 (33 balls) |
| Australia win by nine runs |
| Score card |
Australia continued its dominance in women’s cricket with a thrilling nine-run victory over India in Edgbaston to take Commonwealth Games gold.
Having secured the Ashes and Women’s World Cups in both the Twenty20 and 50-over formats, this success marked a nice fourfold increase for Meg Lanning’s side.
Beth Mooney hit 61 to help Australia reach 161-8 from their 20 overs.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s stunning 65 gave India hope, but her resignation led to a collapse and they were all out at 152.
New Zealand claimed the bronze after beat England by eight wickets earlier in the day.
It is the first time that women’s cricket has been part of the Commonwealth Games.
Australian batter Tahlia McGrath was cleared to participate in the final despite testing positive for Covid-19 before the start of the game.
Cricket Australia said medical staff had implemented a “set of comprehensive protocols” to minimize the risk of transmission to other players and officials.
Despite Alyssa Healy’s early loss for seven, Australia got off to a flying start and was 83-1 after 10 overs.
But captain Lanning was sent off for 36 years thanks to brilliant field work by Radha Yadav, who knocked the ball back onto the stumps to drive her out at the end of the non-rush hour.
Australia’s innings were then anchored by Mooney, whose 61 came from 41 deliveries, before she was sacked by a stunning one-handed catch by Deepti Sharma in the deep end with 16 balls left in the innings.
India was reduced to 22-2 in their response, but a brilliant 96 partnership between skipper Harmanpreet and Jemimah Rodrigues raised hopes of disruption.
They were on par with Australia’s scoring percentage going into 15th, but Rodrigues and Harmanpreet fell in quick succession and India saw their chances of victory diminish.
They continued to fight and went into the final with 11 runs to win with two wickets left.
But Meghna Singh was knocked out on the second ball and Yastika Bhatia caught lbw on the next delivery to cause jubilation among the Australian players as they celebrated gold to further their remarkable honours.