The historic pink ball test between India and Australia women Played at the Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast, Queensland from 30th September ended in a draw after rain spoiled a major part of the first two days.
Though we weren’t able to witness a full-fledged test match, what we did got to witness brought thriller and fun. The Indian and the Aussies Women met for a test match after 15 long years, and we saw a splendid show of performances between what is known as the latest and the biggest women’s cricket rivalry.
Records were made and many were broken too. India’s Smriti Mandhana became the first Indian woman to score a century in the pink ball test, the second Indian woman against Australia in the test, and recorded the highest individual score (127) in a test in Australia. While she was with the bat, Australia’s all-rounder Ellyse Perry was with both bat and ball as she became the first Australian cricketer among both women and men to get 300 wickets along with 5000 runs at the international level.
First Australian Player (male or female) to achieve a career milestone of 5000 International Runs and 300 International Wickets.
Ellyse Perry 🙌😍#AUSvIND #PinkBallTest pic.twitter.com/TgM85I5YOE
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 2, 2021
After not being able to perform well in the ODIs, Perry came back stronger in the test, taking two wickets with the ball finishing with the figures of:
First innings – 27-4-76-2
Second innings – 5-1-14-0
Not just with the ball, she helped her team avoid the follow-on during the first innings where she remained unbeaten on 68. In fact, Perry remained not out during both the innings. While Australia has a legend in Perry, India has it in Jhulan Goswami who proves that age is never a barrier if you are determined towards a goal.
Let’s take a moment (again) to thank Jhulan Goswami for once again proving that ‘AGE IS JUST A NUMBER’ 😍🇮🇳🇮🇳#AUSvsIND #PinkBallTest pic.twitter.com/mBHrNqUC3x
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 2, 2021
Goswami made Australia’s openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney walk back to the dressing room early during the first innings and Healy in the second innings as well. She finished her innings with the figure of:
First innings – 22-7-33-2
Second innings – 6-2-8-1
Not only did she bowled well but this experienced bowler guided the youngsters of her team making them get the breakthrough as well.
After the match was over, we saw many pictures floating across social media capturing the lovely moments and got appreciation from fans. The first one being the combined group photograph of both the teams together.
Lovely moment as two legends of the game stay back for a chat followed by a high-five. Immense mutual admiration between Ellyse Perry & @JhulanG10 Goswami #AusvIND pic.twitter.com/Be883yMXjg
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) October 3, 2021
It was good to see the bonding between the two teams, rivals during a game, and friends after that. Another picture that gained attention was that of the two legends Ellyse Perry and Jhulan Goswami having a friendly conversation on the field after the match was over where it said that they were praising each other’s performance and finished the talk with a high five between them. This is a perfect display of how cricket makes players rivals during a match and friends after it.
The all-format series between Indian and Australian women are heading towards a finish as the last of three formats, the three T20Is begin from Thursday, 7th October. Currently, in this point-based series, Australia is leading with 6 points while India is just a game behind with 4 points. With the great display of performances this series has brought, we are sure to experience some amazing moments during the shortest format of cricket as well.
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