Anne Bierwisch’s hat-trick headlines Germany's 10-wicket win, unassailable lead

Austria won the toss and decided to bat on a hot afternoon at Seebarn Cricket Centre, Lower Austria. Germany made four changes from the side that won the second match in the morning, while Soujanya Chamundaiah came in for Austria in place of Tugce Kazanci.

Openers Harjivan Bhullar and Busra UCA looked steady with the prospect of not having to face their tormentor-in-chief Emma Bargna as Germany decided to rest her. They were helped by some wayward by bowling as Milena Beresford struggled to get her line right. Austria survived the first six overs scoring 27 runs without losing a wicket to end the power play.

Austria would have been hoping to put up a good score, but an ill-advised attempt for a single from Bhullar saw her partner head back to the pavilion in the seventh over. Austria lost Bhullar soon when she was bowled around the stumps after leaving a straight one from Brereton. From there on Austria looked listless and struggled to come to terms with the tight lines Germans bowled and soon were reduced to 41 for 4 with Brereton picking up three wickets.

Things went further south for Austria when Doddaballapur introduced Bierwisch into the attack in the 13^th over. Jo Antoinette Stiglitz hit one straight to Christina Gough at mid-on on the second ball. Priya Sabu then played ugly hoick across the wicket in the next ball to get bowled. Bierwisch and her teammates burst into celebrations when Sylvia Kailath failed to defend a fuller delivery to give her the hat-trick.

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Doddaballapur then dismissed wicket-keeper Harjot Dhaliwal to complete the phase that saw Austria lose 5 wickets for 1 run. Beresford came back to wrap up the innings to end Austria’s misery at 54 runs in the 18^th over. Six Austria batters failed to open their account and none of them reached double figures.

Germany decided that it was time to give other batters an opportunity in the middle and opened the batting with wicket-keeper Sadarangani and the captain in place of regular openers Janet Ronalds and Gough.

Doddaballapur and Sadarangani looked to play straight without trying to go hell for leather. Both played some drives, cuts and then ran hard between the wickets to take the score to 39 at the end of the power play. Sadarangani then decided it was time to finish the match and opened up to hit a couple of boundaries through mid-wicket in the seventh over off Rezarta Avdylaj. She hit the winning run in Avdylaj’s next over to take Germany to a finish that was never in question.

Brief scores: Austria 54 all out in 17.5 overs (Anne Bierwisch 3/5, Suzanne McAnanama Brereton 3/6) lost to Germany 55/0 in 8.1 overs (Sharanya Sadarangani 25*, Anuradha Doddaballapur 20* ) by 10 wickets.