Blown away by Australia!

Nothing could stop Australia from registering their fourth ODI series whitewash in India Opener Phoebe Litchfield went from strength to strength improving upon her two fifties in the first two ODIs to notch up her highest score 119 to power Australia to their highest total against IndiaChoosing to bat the visitors posted 3387 The hosts folded up for 148 suffering their third heaviest defeat in terms of runs 190 on TuesdayGoing by the start Litchfield and captain Alyssa Healy providedmdash189mdashan Australia victory was always on the cards This was the highest stand for any wicket by any pair against India let alone Australiarsquos highest opening partnership against India Healy scored her first ODI fifty after eight inningsmdash82 before chopping Pooja Vastrakar on to the stumps from around her legs after missing a pullIt was an entertaining opening stand in which the Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur used all her bowling options including Punjab leftarm spinner Mannat Kashyap who had a forgettable debut 030 in three oversAlso ReadCape of hopePoor catching continuesIndiarsquos poor catching continued though not to the extent of seven drops in the previous game Deepti Sharma at backward point dived to her left but could not hold on to a Litchfield cut off mediumpacer Amanjot Kaur By then Litchfield had powered her way to 61 employing her favourite reverse sweep at willSmriti Mandhana dropped a straight forward chance given by Elysse Perry at the wide longon boundary off Deepti though the miss did not prove costly as the Australian star fell for 16Australia lost four wickets in the space of 64 overs including two in a row to Patil with Litchfield watching helplessly at the other end having entered the 90s in Healyrsquos company and managing to reach her century with No 6 Ashleigh Garner for support Alana Kingrsquos lowerorder blitz againmdash26 not out 14b 1x4 3x6mdashand her 39 for the unbroken eighth wicket with Georgia Wareham in 32 overs including 19 off the 50th over by Vastrakar put Australia in commandDeepti becoming the fourth Indian woman to reach 100 ODI wickets when she dismissed Litchfield was lost in the mayhem of Australia plundering runsHosts lose early wicketsIndia have never chased successfully anything more than 266 v Australia in Mackay in 2021 It needed a mammoth effort from the batters However Yastika Bhatia Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur falling within 12 overs made matters worse Harmanpreetrsquos dismal form in recent times extended to six single digit scores in the last six outings at Wankhedemdash9 and 6 in T20Is v England 0 in Test v Australia 9 5 and 3 in the three ODIs v Australia A brilliant anticipation by Beth Mooney running from first slip to hold on to the scoop at leg slip cut short Kaurrsquos stayAustralia completed the rout with some outstanding catching including Litchfield pulling off a blinder at cover to dismiss Amanjot and Tahlia McGrath timing her jump at midoff to remove PatilBrief scoresAustralia 3387 in 50 overs P Litchfield 119 A Healy 82 S Patil 357 A Kaur 270 beat India 148 all out in 324 overs S Mandhana 29 G Wareham 323 A Sutherland 29 A King 221 M Schutt 223 by 190 runs