Australia crush India to win world T20 in front of record crowd

Australia thrashed India by 85 runs to win the Women’s T20 World Cup for a fifth time in front of more than 86,000 fans in Melbourne.

Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney hit 75 and 78 respectively as the hosts set a daunting target of 184 for four.

Then Megan Schutt starred with the ball, taking four for 18 as India were dismissed for just 99 in their final over.

The official attendance at Melbourne Cricket Ground of 86,174 was a world record for a women’s cricket match.

Victory capped an emphatic turnaround by the Australians, who had suffered a 17-run defeat by India in the group stages of the competition.

From the moment Indian star Shafali Verma edged behind in the third ball of the chase, a different outcome appeared inevitable.

Australian captain Meg Lanning was quoted as saying by BBC Sport: “We’ve had everything thrown at us, we’ve had our ups and downs and scraped through the tournament but it was our best performance on the biggest stage.”