The Indian batting unit mixed to hit a grand whole of eight fours throughout their whole innings within the first girls’s ODI towards Australia in Brisbane on Thursday.
Throughout the chase, opener Phoebe Litchfield alone hit eight fours, six of them off consecutive deliveries she confronted between the sixth and seventh overs, in her innings of 35 off 29 balls because the hosts cantered to the goal of 101 in solely 16.2 overs for a five-wicket win.
From 89/4, India misplaced 6 wickets for 11 runs in a surprising collapse towards the world champions at Allan Border Area within the first of a three-match sequence. Chasing the modest goal, Australia did lose 5 wickets however for a batting line-up with depth, it was solely a minor blip. Jemimah Rodrigues top-scored for India with 23 off 42 balls. No different batter reached 20.
For the second time in 4 ODIs, India produced a woeful batting show. In opposition to New Zealand in Ahmedabad just a few months in the past, India had been 108/8 at one stage earlier than a late order resistance pushed their whole to some respectability. There was no such rally in Brisbane.
India continues to be overdependent on Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur (and to a lesser extent Jemimah). The crew’s prime three ODI totals in 2024 have all come when Smriti has scored a century – the best coming when each Smriti and Harmanpreet hit triple figures). Smriti has scored 28.5 % of India’s ODI runs this 12 months, whereas the captain and vice-captain have mixed for 43.6 %. It’s comprehensible that the 2 finest batters of a crew account for the majority of the runs, however the best way India wrestle when one or each of them fail to click on is a large concern.
Australia had been purported to be the rustier of the 2 sides going into the sport, having not performed an ODI since March, however India appeared woefully out of depth after opting to bat. Smriti scored her most up-to-date ODI century towards New Zealand by forcing herself to depart balls that she wouldn’t usually go away within the first 10 overs, however she ended up throwing her bat exterior the off-stump early, edging a brief and large one.
Her dismissal put India into reverse gear. Shafali Verma has been dropped from the ODIs attributable to her hunch however in Priyan Punia and Harleen Deol, India had two batters making a comeback of kinds to this format they usually struggled to place bat to ball. On fairly just a few events, Australia’s new-ball duo of Megan Schutt and Kim Garth beat the skin fringe of the right-handers by a big margin.
The chain of dot balls within the first 10 overs resulted within the wickets of Priya and Harleen both aspect of the top of the Powerplay, making an attempt to interrupt the shackles that they had put themselves in. Boundaries had been onerous to come back by as soon as Smriti obtained out. India’s operating between the wickets too was a multitude. Harmanpreet was LBW together with her entrance foot planted on the middle-leg line. Jemimah and Richa Ghosh couldn’t convert a good begin into a large whole, not for the primary time.
Most worryingly, none of those are new points. Shedding towards Australia of their yard isn’t the top of the world, however India’s batting issues appear to be opponent-agnostic in the mean time.
Temporary scores: India 100 all out in 34.2 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 23; Megan Schutt 5/19) misplaced to Australia 102/5 in 16.2 overs (Georgia Voll 46 not out; Renuka Thakur 3/45) by 5 wickets.