Cricket News: Mandhana, Harmanpreet shine in India A win

Smriti Mandhana and experienced Harmanpreet Kaur shone with the bat as India A defeated Australia A by four wickets in the lung-opener of the three-match T20 series in Mumbai. Australia A are in India for a series of three one-dayers and three T20s. The 50-over games are done, and the visitors have won all of them, by 91 runs, four wickets, and five wickets respectively. However, it seems that the India A team, which is basically the national team, who are scheduled to kick off women's T20 World Cup on November 9 against New Zealand have begun their preparations well. Choosing to bat, Australia A managed to score 160/6 in their allotted 20 overs, with Heather Graham top-scoring with 43 as the Indian bowlers took wickets at regular intervals and never allowed the opposition batters to settle. For India, Anuja Patil and Deepti Sharma picked two wickets each. Chasing a stiff total India A scored 163/6 to surpass the target with an over to spare. Mandhana and Kaur made a mockery of the stiff target as they dominated the Aussie bowlers. Mandhana scored a brilliant 72 of 40 balls while she was well supported by Kaur who scored 45 off 39 balls.