New Delhi: Beth Mooney produced a batting masterclass for ages by smashing a scintillating 138 as Australia zoomed their way to a gigantic 412, their joint-highest total in women’s ODIs, in the series-deciding game against India at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Saturday.
On a sweltering afternoon, Australia came out all guns blazing to conjure up a captivating boundary-hitting fest. They made full use of a flat pitch, short boundary sizes, quick outfield, and erratic Indian bowling plus fielding performances to put themselves in the driver’s seat for a 2-1 series win.
Skipper Alyssa Healy set the tone with a brisk 30 and put India bowlers under early pressure, before Georgia Voll and Ellyse Perry carried the momentum forward with fluent knocks of 81 and 68, respectively. Beth Mooney hit the ground running from the word go and ensured Australia didn’t lose tempo by hitting boundaries quite regularly.
She toyed with the Indian attack to hit 23 fours and a six in her massive knock, as Australia also set a new record for their highest women’s ODI score against India. For India, it was a punishing day – the bowling attack looked short of ideas and the hosts were absolutely sloppy in ground fielding and catching. Though they got all ten Australian wickets, most of their breakthroughs came after the damage had been inflicted by the visitors’ top five batters.
Opting to bat first, Alyssa Healy was on the money from the word go by clipping and driving Kranti Goud for boundaries. With Georgia also getting boundaries via flick and flat-batted shots, Alyssa continued to be on a rampage by slicing Kranti for another boundary, before swiping, driving, and lofting Renuka Singh Thakur for three fours.
After pulling Kranti for a cracking boundary, India’s move to have a deep square leg in place worked when Alyssa hit straight to mid-on, making it the third time that she fell to the young pacer.
Ellyse got going with a pick-up pull racing to the boundary rope, while Georgia followed up with a deft late cut for four and was handed a reprieve when Richa Ghosh spilt a regulation diving chance, giving her another boundary. The misfields from India continued to give Georgia and Ellyse boundaries, as Australia ended their power-play at 77/1, their highest score in this phase in an ODI since 2019.
India’s inability to grab close chances continued when Harmanpreet jumped to take Georgia’s catch off Sneh Rana’s bowling, but couldn’t do it and gave the batter another life on 36. Georgia took a liking to Arundhati Reddy’s overpitched balls by dispatching them for boundaries, before bringing up her fifty off 43 balls.
India alternating between short balls and overpitched offerings allowed Georgia and Ellyse to keep the scoreboard ticking despite playing a few dot balls. The pair’s crisp backfoot play, especially their pulls and late cuts, stood out as they carved boundaries with minimal fuss. After Ellyse lofted Sneh Rana over long-on for six, India finally had a breakthrough when Georgia went down to sweep, but top-edged to short fine leg off Sneh.
Beth then joined Ellyse at the crease and kept the tempo going by hitting Deepti for two boundaries, before swinging a Radha Yadav full toss for four and then scooping plus dabbing Renuka for two more fours. Amidst all this, Ellyse got her fifty in 55 balls by slicing Radha for four, before Beth lofted the spinner down the ground for six.
After Beth got her fifty in just 31 balls, she and Ellyse hit six further boundaries between themselves before the latter holed out to Kranti, who took a brilliant diving catch at long-on off Arundhati’s bowling. Beth continued to produce high-quality shots and capitalised on India’s poor lengths to bring up her century in just 57 balls through a pulled four coming on a no-ball.
She and Ashleigh Gardner (39) shared a booming 82-run stand for the fourth wicket before the latter holed out to long-off on Renuka’s bowling. Beth hit five more boundaries before India managed to trigger a late collapse. Deepti had Tahlia McGrath trapped lbw before Beth and Grace Harris fell in quick succession in the 45th over.
Despite Alana King and Georgia Wareham finding a few boundaries and taking them past 400, Australia would be left ruing the 13 unused deliveries in their innings. With the pitch still good for batting, India have to go hard from ball one to save themselves from a heavy defeat.
Brief scores:
Australia 412 all out in 47.5 overs (Beth Mooney 138, Georgia Voll 81; Arundhati Reddy 3-86, Deepti Sharma 2-75) against India
(IANS)
