Smriti Mandhana is currently in the form of her life. After finishing as the leading run-scorer in the Womenโs Premier League (WPL) 2026 and winning the Player of the Match in the final, Mandhana managed to keep up with the momentum in the T20I series against Australia. In the series decider, the 29-year-old rose to the occasion and played an iconic knock of 82 runs off 55 balls to help the visitors post 176 runs on the board in the first innings at the Adelaide Oval.
With that, Mandhana also broke her own record of the highest individual score by an Indian in Australia. Jemimah Rodrigues supported the veteran well, as the duo stitched a partnership of 121 runs, which arguably pushed Australia out of the competition. Jemimah, in the meantime, scored 59 runs off 46 balls, while Richa Ghosh, who was promoted to number four, ahead of Harmanpreet Kaur, made 18.
Chasing 177 runs, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals. They were reduced to 32/3 at one stage and soon that changed to 63/4. All-rounder Ashleigh Gardner was the only one to show some intent, as she made 57 runs off 45 balls. The 28-year-old barely enjoyed any support from the other end, as the Indian spinners wreaked havoc in the middle.
Shreyanka Patil and Sree Charani were phenomenal, to say the least, claiming three wickets each. On the other hand, Arundhati Reddy and Renuka Singh Thakur picked up two and one wicket, respectively, as India won the third T20I by 17 runs and sealed the series 2-1.
Smriti adjudged POTM
Courtesy of her brilliant batting show, Smriti was adjudged the Player of the Match. Calling it โreally specialโ, the Sangli-born highlighted her feelings of beating Australia on their own turf and spoke about her incredible partnership with Jemimah in the first innings.ย
โIt was good to contribute to the series win. I think beating Australia in Australia is something really special. I’m really happy for the team and glad that I could contribute. Jemi coming in and making me run all those twos, but yeah, I think really good partnership between Jemi and me. I think we did beat them in 2016 back when we had come here, but I think we’ve played T20 after a very long time in Australia, so beating them is really nice, but we will move on to the ODI series and not celebrate too much,โ Smriti said in the post-match presentation.
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