Australia 172 for 4 (Mooney 54, Lanning 49*, Pandey 2-32) beat India 167 for 8 (Harmanpreet 52, Rodrigues 43, Brown 2-18) by five runs
Shafali Verma fumbles, then flounders, then finally holds on
Radha should have had another in her next over when Mooney lofted a drive to Shafali at long-on. The ball came to her at waist height and should have been easily taken but she let it slip through her hands and bounce over the boundary. Mooney went on to hit three more fours before trying to cut a Shikha Pandey ball that was too close to her body and found Shafali again. She was stationed at point and made no mistake taking a simple catch. She was clearly relieved and celebrated by banging the ball into the turf. Mooney was dismissed on 54, which meant Shafali’s miss cost India 22 runs.
Ashleigh Gardner’s late attack
Mayhem in the middle
India’s chase started in the worst possible way when Shafali was given out lbw as she missed a flick off Megan Schutt. She was hit above the knee roll and reviewed, with both height and the prospect of the ball missing leg stump on the cards, but was confirmed out on umpire’s call. Five balls later, a Gardner arm ball trapped Smriti Mandhana in her crease as she tried to defend and Australia reviewed on suspicion of pad first. They were right and India had lost their openers.
But the worst came in the over after that when Yastika Bhatia, included in the side after last playing in India’s tournament opener, flicked Darcie Brown to Grace Harris at short midwicket and set off for a run even though Rodrigues didn’t move. By the time Bhatia turned to get back, Harris’ throw had already reached Healy, who had the time to run in and break the stumps. India were 28 for 3 in the fourth over.
Full report to follow…