AUSTRALIA’s Women’s A side have got their historic series against India’s A side off to the perfect start, downing their visitors by five runs in a nail biting win yesterday at Allan Border Field.

After the Australians posted 5/163 from their 20 overs, the Indians could only manage 6/158.

Things started really well for the Australians with bat in hand after Tahlia Wilson and Katie Mack posted a 74 run opening partnership off almost nine and a half overs.

Unfortunately for the Australians things did slow down after that, with four wickets falling for 42 runs in the five and a half overs after Wilson’s dismissal.

However, Nicole Faltum and Maddy Darke rescued the innings a bit for the hosts, putting together a 47 run partnership inside the last five overs to push the score up a bit.

Wilson was ultimately the pick of the batters with a 34 ball 50, while Faltum finished on 25 not out and Darke made 23 not out.

On the flipside, Saika Ishaque was the pick of the Indian bowlers with three of the wickets to her name, while Sayali Satghare picked up the other two.

India did not have a start to its innings that was as strong as the Australians, finding itself at 2/36 in the seventh over.

However, Tanuja Kanwer and Priya Punia then settled the innings, adding 64 runs to the tally in just under eight overs.

Once Kanwer was dismissed, Punia did not have the partners that could stick around long enough with her to keep that pace going, and ultimately lost too many wickets in too little time to keep the momentum going long enough.

Unsurprisingly Punia was the pick of the batters for the visitors, making 76 runs. However Kanwer’s 22 was the next highest score from any of their batters.

Meanwhile alongside three run outs, Maitlan Brown was the pick of the bowlers for Australia with two wickets, while Sophie Day picked up one.

These two sides do not have to wait too long to battle it out again, with the second T20 of the series set to take place tomorrow.