India vs Australia ODI Series: Forgetting the shameful 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.
The Indian team, which came with incomplete preparation after a practice session was washed out due to rain, was out for 100 runs in 34.2 overs in the first match, which was its 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.
After winning the toss and taking the controversial decision of batting first, 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 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 matter of relief for India was the performance of the bowlers. Renuka had 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. The Indian team will have to come back united in the series and also have confidence in itself.
India will hope to repeat this performance from the bowlers in the second match also, whereas Australia’s trump card is Megan’s excellent form. Megan, who took the maximum 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.
The Indian team, which lost 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 made a clean sweep in the last 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 and scored 35 runs in just 29 balls, while Georgia Woll, who made her debut for Australia, sounded alarm bells for the Indians by scoring 46 runs in 42 balls. Is. The last match of the series will be held in Perth on 11th December.
