Women's ODI: Australia too good for struggling India, win by nine wickets

Darcie Browns fourwicket haul and a 126run opening stand between Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes helped Australia thrash India by nine wickets in the first ODI here at the Harrup Park in MackayWith this win Australia has not only taken a 10 lead in the threematch series but also Meg Lannings side has extended its unbeaten run in ODIs to 25 matchesChasing 226 Australia got off to a solid start as opening batters Haynes and Healy put on 52 runs inside the first ten overs The duo brought up a 100run opening stand in just the 18th over of the innings with Healy being the more attacking of the twoIndia finally got the breakthrough in the 22nd over as Poonam Yadav dismissed Healy 77 and this brought an end to a 126run opening stand between Healy and Haynes Australia captain Meg Lanning then came out to the middle to join Haynes Both batters ensured that the Southern Stars do not lose momentum and they kept the Indian bowlers at bayIn the end Haynes 93 and Lanning 53 took Australia over the line with 54 balls to spare The second ODI will now be played on FridayEarlier Mithali Raj might have played a 61run knock for the visitors but Darcie Browns fourwicket haul helped Australia restrict India to 2258 Apart from Mithali Yastrika Bhatia also chipped in with an innings of 35 runs with the help of two boundaries Sent into bat Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana provided a quickfire start as the opening duo put on 31 runs inside the first four overs However Australia stormed right back as Brown dismissed both Shafali 8 and Mandhana 16 reducing India to 382 in the sixth overYastika and Mithali then got together at the crease and both batters put on 77 runs for the third wicket but as soon as India started to gain an upper hand the side lost the wicket of Bhatia 35 to Brown in the 26th over Deepti Sharma 9 failed to leave a mark with the bat handing Brown her fourth wicket and India was reduced to 1294 in the 31st overMithalis strike rate was again a slight worry as she hit her runs off 107 balls and just when it looked like she would change gears she was dismissed by Sophie Molineux in the 38th over Molineux had Mithali stumped and this brought Richa Ghosh and Pooja Vastrakar together at the crease The lowerorder was not able to contribute much and in the end India had to settle with a score of 225 In the final overs Richa Ghosh and Jhulan Goswami played cameos of 32 and 20 respectivelyAlso Read Mithali Raj all set for Aussie challengeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever