'Told girls to put up A-grade performance' : Mithali Raj after India's record breaking win

India women picked up an emphatic win in the final ODI by 2 wickets to end Australia’s streak of 26 consecutive ODI wins. It could have ended in the second ODI itself but a no-ball on the final ball of the match cost India the game. Nevertheless, India have opened their account on the Australian shores. The win will be a massive boost ahead of the historic Day-Night Test starting September 30 in Queensland.

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Post the brilliant win, India skipper Mithali Raj said she asked the girls to give their best performance. Chasing 265, India crossed the line thanks to brilliant half-centuries from Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia. At 160-1, India were cruising to a win but a double blow derailed their chase. India lost regular wickets and by the time Mithali Raj departed at 208, Australia had taken over the driver’s seat from India. However, composed knocks by Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana, who scored 31 and 30 respectively took India over the line.

"We are happy that we have won the last game, just told the girls that the winning streak of Australia started in 2018, against India in India and we needed to be the one who broke that streak. We need to put up an A-grade performance, so happy with the victory. It's good to have a little bit of depth in the batting order, we have bowlers who can bat and that gives us a little more depth in our line-up.

Jhulan Goswami rose to the occasion and delivered a Player of the Match performance. Earlier, she took three wickets to restrict Australia from posting a score out of India’s reach, then helped his team go past the winning line with crucial eight runs.

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Goswami said, "We were just trying to take the game till the end, try to stay there and finish the game. We lost the last match by a narrow margin - was difficult for myself as well as the team, but today was a new day, I wanted to keep the ball in the right area and if I did that, I knew I could get breakthroughs. That was what I did. It's important to give your best in the field, take positives and that's what I want to do as a senior. Lots of soreness in my body having played back-to-back games, need time to recover, but we're looking forward to be a part of the first-ever pink-ball Test."

Earlier, Beth Mooney (52), Ashleigh Gardner (67) and Tahlia McGrath (47) helped Australia post 264.