Rolton steers Stars home

A superb innings from captain Karen Rolton has helped the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars to a narrow two-run win over India in their Twenty20 International at Hurtsville Oval in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon.

Rolton smashed 44 off 23 balls, including eight boundaries, to steer the Aussies to a total of 4-142.

Shelley Nitschke battled through a thigh injury to top score with 49 from 40 deliveries including four boundaries and two sixes.

The Indians put in a great run-chase and need a six off the final ball to force a tie and a shootout, but Mithali Raj could only manage a boundary to give the home side a hard-fought win.

Raj top-scored for India with 51 from 45 and was well-supported by Sulakshana Naik (32) and Jhulan Goswami (27 not out).

"Quite a few Twenty20 games are very tight and it seems to be the nature of the game that results finish up that way. They got a run-on late in their innings but I thought we protected the boundaries well at the end," Rolton said.

"It was good batting performance to post the score we did. We were a bowler down due to Shelley Nitschke's injury which made it difficult, but it was good experience heading into the first one-day match on Friday."

"We hadn't seen a couple of their spin bowlers before today so it was good to have a look at them and gather some more information before the one-day series starts."

The Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars will play India in the first of five one-day internationals on Friday at Hurstville Oval.