Janet Ronalds, Emma Bargna demolish Austria; Germany take 2-0 series lead

Defending 192, Germany made a killer start picking up a couple of wickets in the first over itself. Bargna had Harjivan Bhullar for a first-ball duck before dismissing Priya Sabu (zero) in the third ball of the innings. Suzanne McAnanama-Brereton too joined the party too dismissing skipper Andrea-Mae Zepeda for just four runs before Bargna cleaned up Sylvia Kailath (zero) with the score reading 10 for 4 in three overs.

McAnanama-Brereton took her second of the morning dismissing Busra Uca for just one to leave Austria tottering at 14 for 5. The 50^th ranked team were further down in hole when Bargna returned in the seventh over picking another two - Tugce Kazanci (three) and H Dhaliwal (zero) – to complete her maiden T20I fifer. She finished with figures 4-0-9-5. Antonia Meyenborg (2 for 15) and Asmita Kohli (1 for 11) picked the final three wickets to bowl out Austria for just 53 in 13 overs. Jo-Antoinette Stiglitz (17) top-scored for Austria.

Earlier, opting to bat first, Germany started on a slower note but steadily got the momentum posting 191 for 0 in 20 overs. It was all about Ronalds and Christina Gough (66 not out, 49b, 7x4, 1x6) as the duo hit 15 boundaries combined against Sylvia Kailath (0/43) and Stiglitz (0/47). It was just from where they left in the first match.

Surrounded by farmland in Vienna, Ronalds just punished whatever bad balls that came her way. The Australian-born was mostly dominant on the on-side with 70 percent of her runs coming from that region. Along with fellow opener Gough, the left-hand right-hand combination dispatched the hapless Austrian bowlers at will.

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Austrian bowlers tried their heart out to keep the run-flow on the check but the German pair scored 95 runs in the last eight overs with Ronalds accounting for 53 of them. The diminutive Australian born just hit the Austrian bowlers at will particularly Kailath, whom she hit for four boundaries in the final over to bring up her maiden T20I ton.

Gough played a perfect second fiddle to Ronalds and the tall lanky left-hander found gaps occasionally to race to her second half-century of the five-match series. In fact, the only six of the innings came from Gough, hitting Andrea-Mae Zepeda out of the park on the final ball of the 18^th over.

Germany’s total is their best-ever in T20Is and also the second-best opening stand across the world in the shortest format. Ronalds also became the first-ever male or female German cricketer to hit a T20I ton. The Austrian players are also to blame themselves as they committed several misfields towards the end of the German innings. Valentina Avdylaj (0 for 28) was the most economical bowler in the Austrian side.

Brief scores: Germany 191/0 in 20 overs (Janet Ronalds 105*, Christina Gough 66*) beat Austria 53/10 in 13 overs (Jo-Antoinette Stiglitz 17; Emma Bargna 5/9, Suzanne McAnanama-Brereton 2/16, Antonia Meyenborg 2/15) by 138 runs. POTM: Janet Ronalds.