Australia defeats India to claim 4-1 series win amid stunning 2022 record
Not many international teams can go an entire year without losing a single match, but Australia went close.
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Add a first international hat-trick for Heather Graham and a maiden 50 for Grace Harris to an all-conquering year for Australia that ended with yet another T20 win in India.
Capping a remarkable calendar year in which the World Cup champions have lost just a single match from 26 completed games across all formats, the Aussies, minus injured captain Alyssa Healy, thumped the home side to win by 54 runs in Mumbai.
Australia won the series 4-1, a 16th consecutive series win, having lost just the single game, in a super over, robbing them of an unbeaten 2022.
Across T20s, ODIs and a single Test, Australia won 24 matches, drew the sole Test against England and suffered the one loss in a stunning 12-month period.
That run of success included winning the one-day World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold, an Ashes win against England, the series win over India, and a tri-series against Ireland and Pakistan
Graham, who only made her international debut in India, became the second Australian woman to take a T20I hat-trick, achieved over two overs, as she finished with 4-8.
“I actually had no idea (I was on a hat-trick),” Graham said after the match.
“I think Ash (Gardner) came running from maybe squad leg saying, ‘Do you want some catchers?’ and then TMac (captain Tahlia McGrath) was like, ’Oh yeah, you’re on a hat trick’.
“I changed (my mind) at the top of my mark, I was going to go a slower ball, and then I was like, ‘nah, stuff that, I’m going to bowl on-pace’, which I probably haven’t done much this tour so I thought it was a little bit of a change up that I have up my sleeve, considering I bowl so many slower balls.”
India was bowled out for 142 on the final ball of the innings, chasing Australia’s mammoth total of 4-196.
That was achieved on the back of player-of-the-match Ash Gardner’s 66 not out, off just 32 balls and Harris’ 64 off 35 in a staggering display of batting at Brabourne Stadium, smashing 17 fours and five sixes between them.
The win gave stand-in skipper Tahlia McGrath a perfect record as captain, with the Aussies to fly home on Wednesday ahead of their next engagement, an ODI and T20I series spread across Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart and Canberra in January before the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February.
Originally published as Australia defeats India to claim 4-1 series win amid stunning 2022 record
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