NEWS
Follow UsAustralian opening pacer Megan Schutt blew the Indian women’s team away in their first outing in the three-match ODI series. The experienced pacer picked five wickets for just 19 runs as the visitors folded for just 100 runs after batting 34.2 overs.
Harmanpreet Kaur decided to bat first after winning the toss. However, the Indian batting was embarrassing, to say the least, as the Australian bowlers dominated from the beginning. Kim Garth was moving the ball in both directions, and Schutt didn’t allow the Indian batters much opportunity to get going with boundaries.
Smriti Mandhana was her first victim in the third over of the game. Schutt came around the wicket to the left-hander, and Mandhana nicked off to the keeper, playing a loose shot away from the body on a very wide delivery that was going further away after pitching.
Schutt benefitted greatly from the pressure Garth applied from the other end, and dismissed Priya Punia by forcing her to drive on the up. Punia, who was consuming dot balls at an alarming rate, fell to the trap and failed to impress in her first outing in the series.
The pacer returned later in the innings after Garth, Annabel Sutherland, and Ash Gardner had cleaned up the Indian middle order. She bowled a surprise short ball to Richa Ghosh who failed to time it at all and gave an easy catch to short mid-wicket. She then cleaned up Saima Thakor and Priya Mishra on consecutive deliveries to complete her first ever fifer in the format.
India’s misery was ended on 100 as Garth, Gardner, Sutherland, and Alana King chipped in with a wicket each.
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