Aus Women vs Ind Women first T20I: Arundhati Reddy takes four wickets as India bundles out Australia

Seamer Arundhati Reddy (4/22) led an excellent bowling display as India packed off hosts Australia for 133 in the first women’s T20 International in Sydney on Sunday (February 15, 2026).

Such was the Indian bowlers’ performance that Australia were bundled out with two overs to spare.

Asked to bat first, Australia were quick off the blocks and raced to 22 in 2.2 overs when Beth Mooney (5) got a leading edge while trying to loft a Renuka Singh delivery, but only managed to sky the ball for Smriti Mandhana to complete the catch at cover.

The other opener, Georgia Voll (18 off 10 balls) followed Mooney to the dressing room soon after as she got a thin edge while attempting to play the cut shot against a wide delivery by Kranti Gaud, and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh did the rest comfortably.

Ellyse Perry (20 off 11 balls) and Phoebe Litchfield (26 off 19 balls) steadied the ship with a brisk 41-run partnership for the third wicket but just when their association was starting to threaten India, Arundhati struck thanks to some great work by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who ran back to cover a lot of ground and pulled off a brilliant catch diving sideways.

It was a big break for India, and they had their tails up as they snared two more wickets in the form of Ashleigh Gardner (4) and Litchfield to reduce hosts Australia to 80 for five at the start of the 10th over.

Georgia Wareham (30 off 19 balls) and Nicola Carey (12) added 41 runs for the sixth wicket to halt India’s charge for a brief while before the former not just missed out on a poor Arundhati delivery but got out after miscuing a ball that was going down the leg side, leaving Australia at 121 for six in the 14th over.

The score remained the same as Carey was bowled by a quick Shree Charani delivery while the batter tried to play the cut shot.

Renuka then had Annabel Sutherland brilliantly stumped by Ghosh who removed the bails in a jiffy.

Australia is beginning a new era with Sophie Molineux taking charge of the side after being appointed captain of the T20 team in January.

Teams:

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Kranti Gaud, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur.

Australia: Beth Mooney (wk), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Sophie Molineux (c), Kim Garth, Darcie Brown.