Indian Women’s Cricket Team is in the land of Kangaroos already to have a feel of the conditions just before the all-important Tri-Series begins on the 31st of Jan 2020 and played a warm-up game against the Governor-General XI at the Drummoyne Oval, Drummoyne.
Winning the toss, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur decided to bat first and get a hit out in the middle first up. The Indian pair of young Shafali Verma and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana came out and were up against the domestic Australian attack. Shafali started with her usual style of being aggressive from the word go and was looking good. Smriti fell early in the third over to Stella Campbell who bowled magnificently in the match giving away only 2 runs in 2 overs and picking up a wicket.
Birthday girl Shafali followed her back to the dressing room in the next over by getting out c&b to Molly Strano who ended up with figures of 4 overs 17 runs and a wicket to her name.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues tried to revive the Indian innings by stitching a partnership together but Harman departed after scoring 21 off 29 deliveries soon to be followed by Veda Krishnamurthy. The lone ranger was Jemimah Rodrigues who scored 49 off 49 deliveries but couldn’t finish off well as she was undone by a slower delivery off Belinda Vakarewa who was the pick of the bowlers picking 3 wickets in her 4 overs giving away only 21 runs. India could only manage 113 runs in their allotted 20 overs.
Australia came out to chase the target with a rather calm stature with openers Tahlia McGrath (35 off 29)and Josie Dooley (16 off 21) providing a solid start upfront. Once the openers departed, Bridget Patterson (30 off 30) & Phoebe Litchfield (25* off 17) finished the game off with 5 balls to spare. What was good to see was Phoebe’s calm manner with which she finished the game while she lost a couple of partners at the other end. Shikha Pandey bowled well with figures of ( 3-0-11-1) & skipper Harmanpreet (4-0-15-1) tried to stretch the game as far as possible but there just weren’t enough runs on the board.
This is how she did it: pic.twitter.com/Xb5EvJHakr
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 28, 2020
Australia reached the target in 19.1 overs losing 5 wickets and eventually winning the match with no fuss whatsoever. This game will be a wake-up call for this highly young and energetic Indian side and should also help them find the right combination for the perfect balance to their side.
Brief Scores:
Ind W: 113-5 (20 overs) GG X1: 114-5 (19.1 overs) Result: GG X1 won by 5 wickets.
16 Year old Phoebe Litchfield smashes 2 sixes in 19th over to seal the deal for Governor-General’s XI against India 🙌🇦🇺
India: 113/5(20)
GG XI: 114/5 (19.1) pic.twitter.com/RJXr1AL44x— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 28, 2020
India’s next fixture will be against England in the opening match of the CommBank T20 Tri-Series, taking place at Manuka Oval on Friday, January 31.
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