Player of the match Gardner’s quickfire 31 to go with her two wickets had also given urgency to Australia’s innings as they ended on 4-172 after captain Lanning opted to bat first.
Darcie Brown’s 2-18 also proved pivotal as Australia moved to within one win of a third straight world T20 title and their sixth crown in seven editions.
“Today we probably had no right to win it,at one point there they were cruising,” Gardner said.
“That just shows the way we fight as a team. That’s what we do best – when our backs were against the wall,we scrap really hard and we find a way.”
Australia got off to a dream start with the ball as Megan Schutt and Gardner took out India’s openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana,respectively. Grace Harris and Alyssa Healy combined to run out Yastika Bhatia to leave India on 3-28.
But keeping up with the required rate,captain Harmanpreet Kaur,who had fever in the hours leading up to the semi-final,launched India’s recovery with an excellent 52,helping them gallop to 3-93 at halfway,24 more than Australia at the same point.