Southern Stars rout India

The Southern Stars have completed a 5-0 whitewash of India after they defeated the visitors by seven wickets in the final match of their one-day series at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Sunday.

Set 178 for victory following India's effort of 9-177 from its allotted 50 overs, openers Shelley Nitschke (94) and Alex Blackwell (65) piled on 140 runs for the first wicket as Australia cruised to victory with 21 overs to spare.

Earlier in the day, Nitschke - who missed the first four matches of the series due to a thigh injury - proved as effective with the ball as she was with the bat, taking the best figures of any Australian (2-16) to ensure she was the dominant player of the match.

Emma Sampson (2-31) and Delissa Kimmince (2-46) were the other multiple wicket-takers for the hosts.

For India, Priyanka Roy top-scored with 40 from 85 balls while Anagha Deshpande (27), Sulakshana Naik (26) and Amita Sharma (23) all got starts.

Captain Mithali Rajorn was the pick of the Indian bowlers with figures of 2-18.

"It was nice to get out there and do well today. It's never good being injured and it felt like a long time since I'd played, so today I just wanted to get to the crease and have a bit of a look at the bowlers," said Nitschke.

"We got a message early on that we wanted to try and get the runs quickly and by that time I was pretty set, the ball was getting older and things started to roll my way."

"Alex (Blackwell) is really good to bat with. We haven't opened a lot together but we're getting to know each other a bit more out in the middle and it's starting to work well."

"I wasn't going to shut up shop (when within reach of her century) and wanted to keep doing what had worked already, but I just played a lazy shot."