After losing a Test for the first time to India, Alyssa Healy and her unit made a remarkable comeback to kickoff the ODI series with a convincing six-wicket win as they chased down 283 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday (December 28) to record the second-highest successful run chase in women's ODI history.
Australian bowlers looked fairly impressive as soon as they took the field on Thursday and kept the Indian batters in check right from the outset.
As wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals, India were under the threat of folding below the 200-run mark but a valuable 68-run stand between Jemimah Rodrigues (82 off 77 balls) and allrounder Pooja Vastrakar (62* off 46 balls) turned things around dramatically for the hosts.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side posted 282 on the board and it gave the impression that it was going to be enough but the Aussies had other ideas.
A 148-run partnership for the second wicket between Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield wrestled the momentum back into the visitor's corner and the final stamp of authority came via an 88-run stand between Tahlia McGrath (68 off 55 deliveries) and Beth Mooney (42 off 47 balls).
The Indian players were tested in the field and looked crestfallen as the reigning ODI world champions romped home with six wickets in hand.
However, the Indian team management is fairly confident that the Women in Blue can script a fightback and change the scoreline of the series. India's fielding coach Munish Bali stressed recovery as only one day separates the first and the second ODIs and urged the team to move on from the loss.
"Recovery is very important. We played a Test match and in a couple of days’ time we are playing one-day cricket, we have a game day after tomorrow," Bali was quoted as saying by PTI.
"We will need the girls to be fresh and for that our team is working on the part that they should recover well. Control-alt-delete this game, (on to the) next game," he added.
Bali insisted that India have to raise the bar in both fielding and the bowling departments going forward in the series.
"Firstly, Australia also batted very well. They were taking their singles very well, there were less dot balls. We are playing ODI cricket after a long time so we can do better in fielding and bowling,” he said.
"We fielded well in patches. In the first 25-27 overs there were a couple of direct hits, Sneh Rana took a brilliant catch and the energy was there. But we have to be consistent,” Bali mentioned.
