Southern Stars remain undefeated in India

The Southern Stars have continued their winning streak in India, following a convincing 10-wicket win in tonight’s fourth Twenty20 International.

An unbeaten half-century by Alyssa Healy (54*) and a four-wicket haul to Julie Hunter (4-15) helped the visitors reach their target with 46 balls remaining.

After India won the toss and elected to bat, opening bowler Hunter (4-15) wasted no time dismissing Sulakshana Naik (0) and Mithali Raj in consecutive balls in the first over.

Sharon Millanta (1-21) joined in to claim her first international T20 wicket when Amita Sharma (2) was caught out by Meg Lanning in the second over, to have India on the ropes at 3-5. Lanning (1-11) also claimed her first international T20 wicket when she bowled Indian captain Anjum Chopra (16) in the 11th over.

Jess Jonassen (1-8) chimed in with the key wicket of Harmanpreet Kaur (32), taking a solid catch off her own bowling. Ellyse Perry (2-11) stepped up in the 16th over to add two more wickets, at which point India had reached 7-68. Hunter mopped up the Indian tail-end, taking the last two wickets in the 19th over, leaving India all out for 85.

Healy and Lanning (30*) again teamed up at the top of the Southern Stars’ order and picked up from where they left off in the previous T20 match. The pair reached their 86-run target in the 13th over, securing victory with 46 balls remaining.

Captain Jodie Fields worked tirelessly behind the stumps this evening with three catches, which edged her into the position all-time most successful wicketkeeper in T20 cricket, based on number of dismissals.

After the match Hunter said that every win this tour was helping to build her side’s confidence ahead of this year’s ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

“We’d love to go home and know that we’ve got the clean-sweep over India. Obviously they’re going to be in our pool for the (ICC Twenty20) World Cup and if we can go in there with that confidence, that would be great,” Hunter said.

Hunter said the bowling group had benefited from a systematic approach this tour.

“We’ve just managed to be really disciplined on this tour and bowl to our fields and make sure we have those things right so our plans have been good and we’ve been able to bowl to those,” Hunter said.

The fifth and final T20 will be played at the same venue tomorrow.

The full scorecard can be found here.

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