Thatβs all from New Chandigarh, where India produced a commanding performance to end a 17-year wait for a home win over Australia in this format. The Women in Blue also snapped Australiaβs 13-match winning streak in ODIs with this emphatic result. The stage is now set for a mouthwatering series decider at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
For now, this is Pritam Dey signing off along with scorer/analyst Sachin Yadav as we brought all the actions of this clash. Stay tuned for more cricketing action from around the world. BYE BYEπ
Smriti Mandhana (Player of the Match): "Well, I mean the last 2 hundreds I got against Australia were on the losing cause. So, I am really happy that we won the match today. The gameplan was simple for us. We wanted to make full use of the powerplay and then try and build an innings. Whatever is there in my slot, I will go for it.
It all depends on the conditions and also on the opposition. Sometimes you know the Australian team and what's the par score. You need to get 280-290 so that our bowlers get those 20-30 runs extra cushion. So, it all depends on the surface and the opposition we play. I will change according to the condition.
(Batting with Pratika Rawal) I mean, we both compliment each other a lot. She is pretty calm and composed. We don't complicate stuff. We try to keep it simple. It's going well for us and I hope it continues to go well."
Player of the Match: Smriti Mandhana
Harmanpreet Kaur (India Women Captain): "We are happy that we played good cricket today. That's what we discussed in our last team meeting as well. We wanted to stick to our plans and happy that we got the result we wanted.
We only talk about keeping things simple and clear. That is something which was always worked for us. It once again happened today as well. It helps us getting breakthroughs whenever we need. I think that is the key for us and we want to keep doing those things again and again.
Well, today we got runs from Smriti but the other couldn't contribute much but still we managed to score something close to 300. We always talk about that in our team meetings. We have depth in our batting as well now. As I mentioned, our fielding was a little here and there. But one thing was certain, our bowlers were giving us chances time and again.
This series is something where we want to give a chance to each and everyone. That's something we had kept in our mind after the first game. Happy with today's combination as everyone contributed for the team."
Alyssa Healy (Australia Women Captain): "No, not really. It's a good preparation for the World Cup actually. India were pretty good today in all phases of the game. They pretty much outplayed much. It was a great learning for us heading forward.
I think we actually did a really good job to hold them back to 292. At one stage, it looked like they were going to get a score well over 300. I thought the bowlers did a brilliant job for us. It was just normal stuff for the batters like we did in the other night but they bowled really well with the new ball which did put us under pressure.
I think they bowled quite straight to us and also changed their pace really well. Like I said, it was some great learning for us. It's a really good experience for us heading into the World Cup."
8:44 PM: Time for the Post-Match Presentation!
Arundhati Reddy: "It feels great. We did a lot of planning coming into this game. The bowling unit stepped up for us and even the batting unit did a fabulous job today. It feels great that we have ticked all the boxes.
We spoke about that a lot in the meeting. We wanted to come into this game with a lot of energy. We know the lapses that happened in the last game. We know that we have it in us to perform better as a fielding unit. Glad that it worked out well for us.
It's a good batting track and it was really important for us to keep the temp going.
Feels great. I really wanted to give my best today for the team. I was glad that I could hold onto some crucial catches."
Biggest Defeats for Australia Women in ODIs (by runs):
102 runs vs India Women, New Chandigarh, 2025, Tonight*