IND W vs AUS W | Image: BCCI Women
IND vs AUS: Forgetting the humiliating defeat suffered by the Indian women’s cricket team after being reduced to its lowest ODI score in the last twelve years, when the Indian women’s cricket team will play Australia in the second match at the Allen Border Field on Sunday, the onus will be on the batsmen to perform better and save the team from the series defeat. .
This tour of Australia is considered very important if India has to improve its batting and bowling combination before the fifty-over World Cup to be hosted next year. After a practice session was washed out due to rain, the Indian team entered with incomplete preparation and scored 34.5 runs in the first match. Mo was out for 100 runs in 2 overs, his lowest score in this format in the last twelve years.
The hosts achieved this target by losing five wickets with more than two hundred balls remaining. Apart from Jemimah Rodrigues (23 runs in 42 balls), India’s experienced batsmen could not stand in front of Australian fast bowler Megan Schutt, who gave her career best performance and took five wickets. Although the bowlers performed well and took five wickets of Australia, the target was so small that no miracle was expected. The only good thing for India was the performance of the young bowlers led by fast bowler Renuka Singh Thakur and coach Amol Majumdar also admitted that if the batsmen had played wisely, the result of the match could have been different.
Majumdar had said after the match, “If our batsmen had played better, we would have expected a good score in the match.” Although this wicket was not good for batting because Australia also lost five wickets while chasing the target of 100 runs. He said, “If we had performed better in batting, there would have been more runs on the scoreboard.” After this anything can happen in cricket. Young bowlers performed well which is a good sign for Indian cricket. This is spinner Priya Mishra’s second international tournament. She played well against New Zealand and was effective even today. Titas Sadhu made a good debut while Renuka Singh had an impressive performance. ,
After the controversial decision to bat first after winning the toss, India lost wickets at regular intervals, the batsmen played poor shots and the running between the wickets was also poor. Smriti Mandhana (9), who had scored a century against New Zealand only last month, became the first victim of the shot in the third over and after this the collapse of the Indian innings started. Harleen Deol, who returned to the team after a long time due to injury, could not do any wonders while young Priya Punia also disappointed.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who was under pressure due to failure in the T20 World Cup and poor personal performance, started well but could not survive. Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh, who returned to the team after being out of the series against New Zealand, also disappointed and after their dismissal, the lack of depth in the Indian batting was clearly visible.
The saving grace for India was the performance of the bowlers. Renuka created a sensation by taking the wickets of Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney in the same over, while leg spinner Priya Mishra, playing her second series, took two wickets for eleven runs in two overs. India will hope to repeat this performance from the bowlers in the second match also, while Australia’s trump card is Megan’s excellent form.
Megan, who took the maximum of eight wickets for her team in the T20 World Cup, took 13 wickets for Adelaide Strikers in the WBBL. However, he admitted that it would be a mistake to take India lightly and the Indian team will come back stronger in the second match. Megan had said, “India cannot be underestimated and we will not make the mistake of being complacent.” I think the Indian batsmen will come back strongly in the next match but I have worked a lot on my bowling and I hope to maintain this momentum.
The Indian team, which lost in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in October, defeated New Zealand 2-1 in the home ODI series last month. India has so far won only four out of seventeen ODIs in Australia. Last time in 2021, Australia defeated India 2-1 in the three-match series here.
Australia had last made a clean sweep in the series played in Mumbai in January by winning all three matches. Phoebe Litchfield, who scored 260 runs in that series, once again troubled the Indian bowlers by scoring 35 runs in just 29 balls, while Georgia Woll, who made her debut for Australia, scored 46 runs in 42 balls and sounded alarm bells for the Indians. Is . The last match of the series will be held in Perth on 11 December.
India : Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Uma Chhetri, Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh, Tejal Hassabnis, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Priya Punia, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Titas Sadhu, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh Thakur, Saima Thakaur, Radha Yadav.
Australia : Tahlia McGrath (captain), Ashley Gardner, Darcey Brown, Kim Garth, Alana King, Phoebe Lichfield, Sophie Molineau, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Woll, Georgia Wareham.
Match time: 9 am. 45 according to Indian time.
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