Ellyse Perry stars as Australia beat India in Twenty20 tri-series

Yet who could blame you when Australian star Ellyse Perry is the one with the new ball in her hands, or when you see her trademark faded green helmet staring back at you from the other end of the crease?

A sublime performance from Perry has spearheaded Australia to a four-wicket win over India in their Twenty20 tri-series clash in front of 1594 at Manuka Oval on Sunday.

The star all-rounder picked up a near career-best 4-13 - and would have had five if not for an Annabel Sutherland drop - to derail the tourists en route to 9-103.

The 29-year-old soon backed it up with 49 from 47 balls to help steer Australia to 6-104 with seven balls to spare.

Even then Perry's dismissal hardly revealed a chink in the armour - she was caught on the boundary in a bid to win the game in one swift blow.

Perry claimed three scalps in five balls during the 14^th over before Tayla Vlaeminck nabbed two more in the next, as the tourists lost five wickets in 10 balls for four runs.

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Vlaeminck would finish with a career-best 3-13 as India limped to a lacklustre total.

Yet Perry would stop short of showering herself with praise, for "sometimes it just goes that way."

"We put the squeeze on pretty well the whole way through and didn't let someone like Harmanpreet get away. We took wickets at crucial times," Perry said.

"It then just built up and it was really nice to get those couple of wickets in succession. When you do that you hold all the momentum.

"When you've got someone like Tayla ... look at that first dismissal, that was pure, intimidating fast bowling. It was really nice to see.

"These games are two fold. Winning is a habit and you want to get in it and stay in it, but you want to iron out things that aren't where you want them to be."

When Australia faltered early in the run chase, it was always going to be Perry rising to the task to lift the host nation to the top of the tri-series table.

Rachael Haynes took the captaincy reins after the hosts were dealt an early blow with Meg Lanning ruled out due to a back complaint en route to their World Cup defence.

She is expected to be fit for next week having managed the issue for some time - even so, Perry is confident of Australia's chances if Lanning is sidelined for a little longer.

"We bat pretty deep, we're blessed with the depth we have and also the combination of lefts and rights," Perry said.

"Obviously having Meg in the team always strengthens it, but in this case we've got a lot of depth and anyone on their day is capable of winning us a game."

The series now heads to Melbourne with all three sides on level pegging before they lock horns at Junction Oval

AT A GLANCE

Twenty20 tri-series: AUSTRALIA 6-104 (Ellyse Perry 49, Ashleigh Gardner 22; Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2-18, Deepti Sharma 1-18) bt INDIA 9-103 (Smriti Mandhana 35, Harmanpreet Kaur 28; Ellyse Perry 4-13, Tayla Vlaeminck 3-13) by four wickets at Manuka Oval. Crowd: 1594.