Inconsistency continues to hurt India Women as they performed below par in the second T20I to a concede the game to Australia at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.

The Australians, thrashed by nine wickets in the series opener, bounced back to register a six-wicket win to level the series 1-1.

Put into bat, the Indians were scratchy right from the onset, managing only a modest 130/8. Such a total was not at all enough to put pressure on the world champions, who kept their cool right through the run chase and held their nerves at the death to overhaul India's total with an over to spare.

Losing Shafali Verma early in the second over of the game to medium pacer Kim Garth, who also took the key wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues, India could never recover as the visitors kept on striking in regular intervals. Only keeper-batter Richa Ghosh (23) and off-spinner Deepti Sharma (30) could put up a little bit of resistance against the likes of Kim Garth (2/27), Annabel Sutherland (2/18) and Goergia Wareham (2/17).

Deepti Sharma on Sunday. PTI photo

With Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and captain Harmanpreet Kaur unable to come up with any kind of resistance, India were reeling at 107/7 in the 18th over. Even 120 looked far then till Deepti scored a few runs to somehow stretch the total to 130.

In reply, skipper Alyssa Healy (26) and Beth Mooney took Australia off to a perfect start, hitting 51 in seven overs. India tried to claw back into the game when Deepti (2/22) struck to reduce Australia to 97/4 in the 16th over.

However, Ellyse Perry (34 not out) and Phoebe Litchfield (18 not out) remained composed and took their side home.