The series was lost but star opener Smriti Mandhana feels the Indian women's cricket team gained quite a lot from its recent tour of Australia, the biggest positive being the visiting bowlers' lion-hearted performance in the multi-format rubber.
When the two sides met in the inaugural edition of the ICC Women's Championship in Bengaluru in November 2014, South Africa had won the series 2-1.
Riding on Mithali Raj's record century, India 'A' defeated their Australian counterparts by 28 runs to take a winning 2-0 lead in the three-match T20 series in Mumbai on Wednesday.
India's unpredictable middle-order has repeatedly squandered good starts at the women's T20 World cup. In all the three matches, the bowling unit bailed the side out.
On a high after two easy victories on the trot, including one against defending champions Australia, India will aim to inch closer to a semi-final berth when it takes on New Zealand in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, in Melbourne, on Thursday.
Images from the Women's World Cup match between India and the West Indies, in Hamilton, on Saturday.
Having won the three-match ODI series 2-1, India are currently leading the five-match T20 series 2-0.
India's captain Mithali Raj says youngsters like Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh have shown that they have the ability to compete at the highest level and the last few series have helped the team figure out its composition ahead of women's ODI World Cup next month.
The Supernovas, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, have been invincible so far winning all the previous two editions.
The T20 Challenge, to be played during the IPL play-offs, will begin with last year's finalist Supernovas taking on Velocity in the opening game.
The team leaves for Australia on Wednesday to play three ODIs, a day-night Test and three T20Is.
The 15-year-old Shafali, who was dismissed for a four-ball duck on her debut in the opening match, laid the foundation for a good total with a 33-ball innings, while Jemimah Rodrigues (33) provided the stablity, scoring a 22-ball 33.
India suffered 18-run defeat to hosts New Zealand
India defeated England by eight wickets to record a consolation win in the women's T20 tri-series
The much-hyped women's exhibition IPL T20 match between Supernovas vs Trailblazers witnessed an exciting finish but failed to attract sizeable crowd at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium on a sultry Tuesday afternoon despite the presence of the world's top women cricketers.
Indian women's cricket team's confidence will be high as it heads into a five-game Twenty20 against South Africa.
India will face their biggest challenge so far in the ICC Women's World T20 when they lock horns with a gifted Australian team in an inconsequential game, in Guyana, on Saturday.
Sri Lanka's Chamari Athapaththu smashed a quick-fire half-century as two-time champions Supernovas reached their third successive final with a narrow two-run win over Trailblazers in a last-ball finish at the Women's T20 Challenge, in Sharjah, on Saturday.
Leg-spinner Poonam Yadav's magical spell helped India beat Australia by 17 runs in the tournament opener on Friday but the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side can't afford to take Bangladesh lightly as their eastern neighbours had beaten them twice in the 2018 T20 Asia Cup.
The Southern Stars from Australia reasserted their supremacy with a comprehensive 60-run victory against Indian women
India crushed minnows Thailand by 74 runs to storm into the final of Women's Asia Cup
Former India women's coach W V Raman says the 25-year-old is a good reader of the game and has already played few years of cricket.
Dominant in the series-opener, the Indian women's cricket team would now look to seal the issue when it takes on South Africa in the second ODI of the three-match series
The Indians are in red-hot form, but history favours England, who have won all the five WT20 matches played between the two sides, when they meet in the semi-finals of the ICC women's World Cup on Thursday.
Team India needs to ensure that the frequent middle-order collapses are not repeated in the showpiece event.
All that's transpired on and off the cricket pitch on Wednesday.
'In the T20 format, there are lot of areas where we need to improve and a big thing where we are lacking is our fielding, because if you see the ODI series, (because of) fielding we have given a lot of runs'
In the lead-up to the World T20, India have hit good form, beating hosts Sri Lanka before blanking Australia A at home. What should give them additional confidence going into the opener is the wins against reigning champions West Indies and England in the warm-up matches.
Daniellie Wyatt helped England pull off a record chase and crush India by seven wickets in their second T20 triangular series match, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
Meg Lanning's Australia, long the benchmark in women's cricket, will bid for a record-extending fifth T20 World Cup title after a rocky ride to their sixth final. Harmanpreet Kaur-captained India arrive at the MCG undefeated and without having bowled a ball in the rained-out semi-final against England.
Jhulan Goswami said winning a World Cup title remains her ultimate dream
Veteran seamer Jhulan Goswami was named in the Indian women's team for the T20 tri-series involving Australia and England with Harmanpreet Kaur back as the leader.
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