Megan Schutt on Monday claimed a hat-trick during a T20I tri-series match against India Women in Mumbai. By doing so, the 25-year-old became the first Australian woman cricketer to claim a T20I hat-trick. Set 187 to win, India were off to a poor start with Schutt claiming two back to back wickets in the second over of India’s chase. She first bowled in-form opener Smriti Mandhana and then removed Mithali Raj for a first-ball duck on her next delivery. She picked these two wickets on her last two balls of the first over. Interestingly, she was taken off the attack despite making early inroads. Instead of handing the ball to Schutt for the fourth over, Australian captain Meg Lanning introduced Delissa Kimmince in the attack.

However, Schutt then came back into the attack with a change in the end and on her first ball removed Deepti Sharma, who was caught near mid-off, thus completing her hat-trick. She then finished with figures of 3/31 in her quota of four overs.

India eventually were restricted to 150/5 and lost the match by 36 runs. Opener Jemimah Rodrigues was the top-scorer for her side as she scored 50 off 41 balls. Apart from her, Harmanpreet Kaur and Anuja Patil scored 33 and 38 respectively. Schutt becomes only the seventh women’s cricketer to take a hat-trick taken in women’s T20Is.

Meanwhile, India drifted to their third consecutive defeat in the tri-series. The Harmanpreet-led side came into the contest having earlier faced defeats against Australia and England. They now lag at bottom of the points table. England, on the other hand, are on top of the points table.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2018 04:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).