Aussie depth delivers in record-breaking victory

In the build-up to the Commonwealth Games Australia declared an intention to push the envelope of T20 cricket.

It was a statement made with enormous totals in mind, but their Games debut nonetheless broke new ground in the shortest format as they pulled off one of the greatest ever recoveries to edge home against India by three wickets.

Many would have written off any team floundering at 5-49 and still 106 runs shy of their target of 155.

Never before had a side completed a successful chase when needing more than 90 with five wickets down.

And this was Australia's worst start to a T20I innings since being bowled out for 66 against New Zealand in 2017.

But their much vaunted – and often little utilised – depth came to the fore, as No.6 Ashleigh Gardner (52no off 25), No.7 Grace Harris (37 off 20) and No.9 Alana King (18no) pulled off a rescue job befitting the historic occasion at Edgbaston.

"We talk a lot about having really good depth in our batting line-up and once Grace got to the crease, we still felt there was a really good shot for us to win if we just got the momentum back," skipper Meg Lanning said.

"That's exactly what happened.

"It wasn't (a perfect performance) but we are really confident that if it doesn't go our way, we can still get the win and this is a really good example of that."

It was a victory achieved with Ellyse Perry on the bench, the first time the superstar has not played the opening game of a major tournament when available for selection, and was an endorsement of Australia's decision to opt for players with high strike-rates in the middle-to-lower order.

It also stood in contrast to Australia's previous defeats to India during the group stages of major T20I events in 2018 and 2020.

On both occasions they collapsed chasing gettable targets; in 2018, they were all out for 119 chasing 169, while in the opening game of the 2020 World Cup, Australia were rolled for 115 in pursuit of India's 4-132.

"You'd be kidding yourself if you said you didn't think about that," Gardner said of comparisons to the loss at Sydney's Showground Stadium in 2020.

"But I went out to bat with Rachael Haynes and she's a very calming influence.

"We lost some early wickets but we knew we had the batters down the order to pull back momentum."

Harris's whirlwind rescue job repaid the faith of selectors who gave the hard-hitting Queenslander the nod at No.7 ahead of pace bowling allrounder Nicola Carey, with Lanning revealing after the match it had been a close call.

"We were comfortable with (playing) three quicks and then the four spinners with Grace (who did not bowl) … Grace gave us that extra bit of batting as well which was a key factor in it.

"That worked pretty well today but Nicola Carey's bowling really well actually, so she was pretty unlucky to miss out, it was just (team) balance."

2022 Commonwealth Games

Australia's squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Amanda-Jade Wellington

See all the Commonwealth Games cricket squads here

Group A: Australia, India, Pakistan, Barbados

Group B: England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka

July 29: Australia beat India by three wickets

July 31: Australia v Barbados (6pm local, 3am Aug 1 AEST)

August 3: Australia v Pakistan (11am local, 8pm AEST)

Semi-finals: August 6, 11am local (8pm AEST) and 6pm local (3am Aug 7 AEST)

Bronze medal match: August 7, 10am local (7pm AEST)

Gold medal match: August 7, 5pm local (2am Aug 8 AEST)

All matches played at Edgbaston Stadium