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Australia Women and India Women will lock horns in the second game of a three-match ODI series on Friday, September 24, at Harrup Park in Mackay.
The first ODI of the series on Tuesday, September 21, turned out to be a one-sided affair. Meg Lanning and Co. showed why they are deemed a brute force at home. Australia won their first match by nine wickets with nine overs to spare and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl, Australia hardly allowed India to press the accelerator. Openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma perished early as Darcie Brown wreaked havoc in India’s top order. Thereafter, Yastika Bhatia and Mithali Raj tried to revive the innings.
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The duo put on a 77-run stand before Brown removed Bhatia for 35. Raj scored 63, but she played at an underwhelming strike-rate of 58.88. In the end, it was Richa Ghosh’s unbeaten 32 and Jhulan Goswami’s 20 that took India to a respectable score of 225 in their 50 overs.
In the run-chase, Alyssa Healy and Rachel Haynes’ 126-run stand for the opening wicket fizzled the spirit out of the Indians. Both batters scored half-centuries and accomplished the 2000-run mark in ODIs. Healy made a run-a-ball 77 before Poonam Yadav dismissed her.
Haynes stayed unbeaten on 97 while skipper Lanning chipped in with an unbeaten 69-ball 53. Lanning, meanwhile, is only 22 runs short of becoming the third Aussie women’s batter to score 4000 ODI runs since Belinda Clark and Karen Rolton.
Can India make a comeback in the series?
India need to sort out their bowling woes as the bowlers looked a tad out of touch. Although Meghna Singh bowled well, she is likely to make way for the more experienced Shikha Pandey.
India also need to find a way of scoring runs at a faster rate, especially in the middle overs. They have a decent batting lineup and have every chance of making a comeback in the next encounter.
Prediction: The team, batting second to win the match.
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