With the help of centuries from Georgia Woll and Ellyse Perry, Australia defeated India by 122 runs in the second women’s ODI here on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Young batsman Woll, playing her second ODI, managed to score the first century of her career with an innings of 101 runs in just 87 balls, while Perry dominated the Indian bowlers by scoring 105 runs in 75 balls.
Australia decided to bat first and scored 371 runs for eight wickets, which is its highest score against India. The team then registered an easy victory by bundling out India’s innings for 249 runs in 45.5 overs. After the match, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur said, “We were able to build some partnerships in between. Our mentality was positive in this match, but we fell behind.
He said, “We created some chances but could not take advantage of them. We should give credit to Australia for their excellent batting. We need to think about our plans and how we will bowl in the next match. We need to bat the full 50 overs.
The opening pair of Phoebe Litchfield (60) and Voll gave Australia a great start with a 130-run partnership. Voll then made a partnership of 92 runs with Parry for the second wicket. Voll hit 12 fours in his innings while Perry hit six sixes and seven fours.
After Voll’s dismissal, Perry continued to bat aggressively and did not give the Indian bowlers a chance to make a comeback by making a partnership of 98 runs with Beth Mooney (56). Saima Thakor was the most successful among the Indian bowlers. He took three wickets for 62 runs. Minnu Mani took two wickets for 71 runs while Renuka Singh (one wicket for 78 runs), Deepti Sharma (one wicket for 59 runs), and Priya Mishra (one wicket for 88 runs) got one wicket each.
While chasing the target, the Indian team never looked in a strong position in the match. Richa Ghosh, who came to open the innings, scored 54 runs in 72 balls. Due to cheap dismissals of Smriti Mandhana (nine) and Harleen Deol (12), the team could score only 45 runs for two wickets in 11 overs.
Richa and Harmanpreet (38) then tried to bring India back into the match with a partnership of 66 runs in 69 balls for the third wicket, but Alana King (1 wicket for 25 runs) gave a big blow to India by dismissing Richa. .
After a few overs, Harmanpreet was dismissed by Megan Shut (one wicket for 35 runs), while Deepti Sharma (10) became the victim of Ashley Gardner (one wicket for 47 runs). Like Harmanpreet, Jemimah Rodrigues (43) also failed to convert a good start into a big innings. They were led by Sophie Molineau (one wicket for 44 runs).
Minnu Mani scored unbeaten 46 runs in 45 balls in the last overs but her contribution could only reduce the margin of the team’s defeat. For Australia, Anabel Sutherland took four wickets for 38 runs in 8.5 overs. Australia won the first match by five wickets. The last match of the series will be played on Wednesday at WACA ground.
