India eye win to keep series hopes alive against Australia

Watch the match live on ICC.tv in select regions.

OverviewAustralia v India, 2nd T20I
Metricon Stadium, Carrara
9 October, 18:10 Local

In the first of the three T20Is, India while batting first had announced that their approach will remain aggressive and fearless in the shortest format. With Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana on top of the order, the strategy yielded results with 55 runs in the powerplay. Jemimah Rodrigues powered through the middle overs carrying forward the momentum generated early in the innings in her first opportunity on this tour.

On the other hand, Australia were taken aback by early fireworks from the visitors, however, still managed to snare wickets at key intervals with a shift in the plan to go to spinners Sophie Molineux and Ashleigh Gardner as early as the second over. Australia would now shift focus on how to dry out scoring opportunities for India who dealt in boundaries heavily.

Remember the last time

The first T20I between Australia and India in Carrara ended in a no result as persistent rain forced the play to be called off. The India innings went till 15.2 overs before the players had to leave the field. The visitors were on track to post a competitive total with 131/4 on the scoreboard while Jemimah Rodrigues was still batting on 49*.

What they said:Jemimah Rodrigues (India batter): "We are very confident, especially the way the last two ODIs that went so close and the Test where we fought back so well. That gives us a lot of momentum and as we spoke in the dressing room, we are going to continue with the same momentum. We've got a young side, there's a lot of energy and everyone is fearless. We want to play a fearless brand of cricket and you could see that today (in the first T20I)."

Tayla Vlaeminck (Australia bowler):"It is a really good challenge for our group. It is a very tight series, we have to win a game. India are a very good side and we have seen how much they improved in the last 12 months since that World Cup. They've got some very aggressive batters who can take the game away from us, so we are going to have to have a really good look at the players and come out on Saturday ready to go."