MUMBAI: The Indian women’s team couldn’t have started 2024 on a worse note. Putting out their worst bowling, fielding and batting display in along, long time, India, enduring a nightmarish time against a mighty side, suffered a humiliating 190-run thrashing at the hands of a relentless Australia in the third and final women’s ODI at the
Wankhede Stadium
on Tuesday night.
More than the 3-0 series defeat, what should worry India-with two World Cups in the next two years- is their abysmal fielding standard, which is light years behind Australia, the No. 1 team in the game by far.
Two moments watching Australia’s sharp, athletic fielding stood out in complete contrast to what one saw in the afternoon, when India struggled to even stop the ball, let alone catch it.
Australia’s
Phoebe Litchfield
virtually flew to her right at cover to pull off a stunner to send India’s Amanjot Kaur back to the pavilion. A few balls later, Tahila McGrath leapt high in the air to pluck out a catch to dismiss Shreyanka Patil off Annabel Sutherland.
Before they avenged their maiden defeat in the one-off Test against India at this venue with a clean sweep against the same opponents, the Aussies signed off with another moment of magic-as leg-spinner Alana King brought back the memories of her idol, spin wizard Shane Warne, by cleaning up Pooja Vastrakar’s stumps with one that pitched outside leg stump and turned viciously to hit the top of off stump.
Powered by a brilliant century by the Australian women’s cricket’s new sensation Phoebe Litchfield, who cracked a career-best 119 (125b, 16x4, 1x6) and her record 189-run opening stand off just 173 balls with skipper
Alyssa Healy
(82, 85b, 4x4, 3x6), Australia raced away to a massive 338 for seven in 50 overs against a hapless India after electing to bat first. Surrendering with the bat, India were shot out for just 148 in merely 32.4 overs.
To complete a forgettable series for her, Indian women’s captain
Harmanpreet Kaur
was out caught while paddle sweeping leggie Georgia Wareham for just three-her previous scores in this series were nine and five. In what has been a miserable home season for her personally, Kaur has logged six single digit scores.
Australia bettered their own previous-highest WODI total against India of 332 for seven in March 2018 at Vadodara, while Litchfield and Healy strung together the biggest partnership for any wicket against India in this format. It was clear that with the series in the bag 2-0, the Aussies were in a mood to make merry on their first ‘working day’ this year!
For a while after they managed to get the opening breakthrough when Healy was bowled trying to pull Pooja Vastarkar, the hosts bounced back, taking four wickets in the space of 27 runs as off-spinner Shreyanka Patil (3-57 in 10 overs), playing just her second ODI, put in another impressive performance, trapping Beth Mooney (3) and Aussie vice-captain
Tahlia McGrath
(0) lbw to be on a hat-trick in the 36th over.
However, as has been the norm, Australia’s ever-wagging tail came to the party, with No 9 Alana King, who blasted a decisive 39 not out off 26 balls including three sixes in the last match, once again hurting India’s attack in the slog with her fireworks- careening 26 not out off 15 balls this time- in a cameo which included three sixes and a four.
Also chipping in with useful scores were Ashleigh Gardner (30, 27b, 4x4), Annabel Sutherland (23 off 21 balls) and Georgia Wareham (11 not out off 8 balls). Few teams-in either the women’s and men’s game-can boast of a ‘tail’ as thick and as steely as that of the Australian women’s team!
India’s woeful fielding, which caused them to drop seven catches in the last ODI, continued to be on a downward spiral. Strangely, one of the chief ‘culprits’ in this area in the series has been
Smriti Mandhana
, normally a safe fielder. In the 32nd over, the Indian vice-captain dropped a sitter that Elysse Perry, batting on 10, had offered at deep mid-wicket off Deepti Sharma. Thankfully, the lapse didn’t prove too expensive as Perry (16) was rapped on the pads lbw by medium-pacer Amanjot Kaur in the next over.
Deepti herself had dropped a slightly tougher chance at backward point to let off Litchfield in the 19th over off Amanjot. Other than the drops, it was India’s shoddy ground fielding- a few times the fielders, for some reason struggling to stop the ball let alone catch it, conceded a boundary when they could have easily stopped the ball-that really made for ugly viewing. To make it worse, India conceded 28 extras, including 20 wides, which meant that from over No 48, they could only keep three fielders outside the circle.
Ironically, the in-form Litchfield’s India tour, which is becoming special by the day, began on an unfortunate note as she was run out without facing a ball in the first innings in the one-off women’s Test at the Wankhede, but the 20-year-old left-hander as come into her own in the ODIs, cracking 63 & 78 before slamming her second century in this format on Tuesday. The opener from New South Wales drives and cuts the pacers well, and uses her feet and the reverse sweep -she reached her third fifty (off 50 balls) on the trot in the series with that shot off Deepti-to dominate the spinners.
Healy, meanwhile, shrugged off a bad patch that had seen her go without a fifty in eight ODI innings.
Resting off-spinning all-rounder Sneh Rana, India gave an ODI debut cap to young left-arm spinner Mannat Kashyap. The idea, however, turned disastrous as Mannat, pounded by Litchfield and Healy, conceded 0-30 off her three overs. Both India’s leading pacers Renuka Singh Thakur (0-52 in 7 overs) and Vastrakar (1-68 in 10 overs) looked tired after having bowled a fair amount of overs in Mumbai’s heat in India’s busy home season. Deepti became the fourth Indian woman bowler to take 100 ODI wickets when Litchfield was finally out, edging a slog-sweep that was smartly pouched by India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur at cover, but the beleaguered hosts had too little to celebrate on a miserable day.
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