Australia’s 43-run victory over India in New Delhi on Saturday did not merely wrap up a 2-1 away ODI series win, but laid down a few markers for the upcoming World Cup, set to be held in India and Sri Lanka next month.
The way Alyssa Healy’s side adapted to the subcontinental conditions and fine-tuned their plans while also clinically wrapping up two victories underlined their status as overwhelming favourites heading into the biggest tournament in the game. The seven-time champions are dead set to make it eight; the pretenders must step up or wait their turn.
But Saturday’s run fest at the Feroz Shah Kotla – the famous old ground in the national capital is quickly developing a reputation for being a batter’s paradise in limited-overs cricket – showed that the dominant Aussies do have a chink in their armour.
Smriti Mandhana hit a defiant 63-ball 138, both elegant and swashbuckling at once. The 29-year-old hit the second-fastest ton in women’s ODI history (50 balls) only a few hours after Australia’s Beth Mooney hit the joint-third-fastest (57 balls). And in doing so, she exposed a few cracks within the opposition.
On the flat and/or turning tracks that are set to be rolled out for the World Cup, Australia’s bowling will struggle without quality spin and with the ineffectiveness of their medium pacers in generating movement from the pitch. By tonking the bowlers to all corners of the ground in her innings, Mandhana gave them a proper scare. Especially when she was complemented by Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur in a quickfire partnership that ransacked 121 runs in just under 12 overs.
Australia’s superiority is diluted just enough in these conditions to open the door slightly ajar for other teams to have an opportunity. India’s dominant 102-run victory in Mullanpur on Wednesday was evidence of that.
But Australia’s innings on Saturday did prove that the gulf in class, while shrinking, does exist. For every time Ellyse Perry danced down the track to wallop a six, there were mishits from India that were chopped onto the stumps or caught in the circle. For every bit of creative strokeplay from Ashleigh Gardner, there was a dropped catch from India. For every free-flowing boundary that dripped effortlessly from Mooney’s bat, there was an Indian misfield that leaked a couple of extra runs.
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Australia skipper Healy won each of the tosses in this three-match series, and while she chose to field in the previous two to trial their plans and get used to these conditions, here she made the ruthless choice, cheekily proclaiming she will let India “run around in the heat today”.
And so they would. India – sporting a fluorescent pink jersey to raise awareness for breast cancer – toiled on this sultry afternoon in front of a sparsely-filled stadium as the Australian top order ran them ragged. Mooney would be the chief protagonist, her 75-ball 138 the pick of an innings that had three 50+ scores, giving her side the impetus to put up a mammoth total of 412 despite losing their last six wickets for just 38 runs. It was their joint-highest total in ODIs, the previous one coming against Denmark in 1997.
It needed to be mammoth, too. India’s reply was formidable. As the crowd slowly filled in a bit more towards the evening, they were greeted with two dozen overs of a perfectly-paced run chase. Mandhana’s attack was relentless, bringing up her fifty in just 23 balls, but also necessary with the scoreboard pressure.
Her wagon wheel too, was all over the field. She was adeptly and frequently plugging gaps in the field to keep the runs ticking throughout her innings and her best scoring ares, where she could unleash the slog sleep over mid-wicket, was plundered for much of her 17 fours and five sixes. She has emerged as the pre-eminent batter from this series with 300 runs in three innnings.
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In Harmanpreet, she found an able partner as both players kept the boundaries flowing and the run rate above 10, piling so much pressure on the Aussies that they too would fumble the odd misfield and drop catches.
But both lost their wickets a few deliveries away from each other, and while they left India’s run chase in a healthy position at 216 in 21.2 overs, it was effectively over when they departed. Deepti Sharma attempted a late rescue act with a typically brisk innings of 72 from 58 balls; she admirably fought and took the chase deep, stitching together a partnership with Sneh Rana, but the loss of wickets midway through the innings was enough.
India lost the series but get two important takeaways ahead of the World Cup. Mandhana, who scored two hundreds and a fifty, is in the form of her life and will be the leader of India’s batting unit. And Australia, while evidently superior, are not unbeatable.
Brief Scores: Australia-W 412 all out in 47.5 overs (Beth Mooney 138, Georgia Voll 81; Arundhati Reddy 3/86) beat India-W 369 all out in 47 overs (Smriti Mandhana 125, Deepti Sharma 72; Kim Garth 3/69).
