India vs Australia Day/Night Test: Smriti Mandhana scores career-best 80 as visitors finish rain-hit Day 1 on 132/1
CHENNAI: When you send the opposition in on the morning of a Test, that first session is everything. Take wickets, contain runs and you have set the tempo for the entire match. Fortunately for India, the Australian bowlers’ radar malfunctioned. On the few occasions when the Indian batters erred, the fielders extended the hosts’ hospitality by grassing chances.
Shafali Verma, the lone batter to be dismissed, was given three lives before she was removed for 31. It was her opening partnership with Smriti Mandhana, on 80, that has put the visitors in command. The southpaw, who was all class during the entirety of Day 1, looked set to score many more when the Carrara Oval witnessed a deluge for the ages. It stopped for a brief while but the pre advertised thunderstorms came back to leave India 132/1 after 44.1 overs. Punam Raut, on 16, was the other batter at the crease.
In her still fledgling career, Verma has already made quite the name for herself as a gung-ho opener, who cares little for bowlers’ reputations. On Thursday afternoon, though, it was Mandhana who essayed that role to perfection. She hit 12 fours in the first 17 overs to severely dent any rhythm Australia had hoped to build after winning the toss on a pitch that had an even covering of green grass.
“We just had two sessions with pink ball (before the Test). I didn’t really get much time to play with pink ball, but during the Hundred, I just ordered a pink ball, just to keep it in my room because I knew there is going to be a Test,” Mandhana said. The 25-year-old made her intentions clear in the eighth over, hitting Darcie Brown for four boundaries in one over.
Brief scores: India women 132/1 in 44.1 ovs (S Mandhana 80 n.o.; S Molineux 1/18) vs Australia women.