Alyssa Healy calls for more women’s Test matches following loss to India in Mumbai
Australia’s unbeaten Test record of a decade has fallen in India following a dominant display by the hosts in Mumbai.
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Australian captain Alyssa Healy has called for the women’s side to play more Test matches after going down to India in Mumbai by eight wickets.
While it was the first time the Australian side had lost a Test match since 2014, the Baggy Greens had only been worn five times since England defeated Australia in Perth.
Healy’s side lost after lunch on Day 4 after a scratchy opening day put them a long way behind right out of the gates.
No Australian batter faced more than Beth Mooney’s 94 deliveries on the opening day, with Tahlia McGrath top-scoring with 50 as Australia was dismissed for 219 off 77 overs.
It was just Australia’s second women’s Test series in India and the fifth Test, with the first series of four Tests - all draws - played in 1984.
None of Australia’s XI in Mumbai were born during the 1984 series, and while plenty of them have experience in the Women’s Premier League and in short-form games in Indian conditions, they’ve had next to no experience batting or bowling for extended periods on deteriorating subcontinental wickets.
“What an amazing experience to come over here and play test cricket, they’re not easy to win over here as we’ve found out,” Healy said post-game.
“We’d love to play a few more to make it really interesting.
“We probably just had one bad day, the first day, but the rest of the time we showed a lot of fight so I’m proud of our effort.”
Healy said aside from a warm-up match, the Australians were all learning on the fly.
“It’s our first opportunity to play red-ball cricket over here so we’re learning on our feet over here, so the girls’ continued to adapt over the four days was impressive,” she said.
While the Indian bowlers generated plenty of chances it was with the bat where the hosts showed the biggest discrepancy with the visitors.
Australia lost most of its wickets with sweeps, either conventional or reverse, which was a shot the Indian batters rarely pulled out unless a ball was well down the leg side, and unsurprisingly looked far more comfortable in the conditions.
Even when the Australians thought they had the Indians on the ropes, a 126-run partnership for the eighth wicket put hopes of a win to bed and put India in the box seat for their first Test win over Australia.
Healy said if the side had been able to bat the whole day it may have changed the result.
“If we’d batted that full first day, that cost us a lot. Leaking too many [runs] in the afternoon put us on the back foot,” she said.
“A touch over 300 and then if we’d been able to bowl at them after a full day in the field that might have been different but that’s the beauty of it is you’ve got to execute the whole way through.
“Fair play to the Indian side, they found ways to keep putting pressure on us, particularly with the bat and ultimately put too many runs on us.”
There are six games left in the series, three 50-over games and three T20 matches.
India v Australia women’s cricket Test: Triumphant India shatter Aussie’s decade-long domination of Tests
India has ended Australia’s near decade-long unbeaten streak in the Test arena after a dominant eight-wicket win in Mumbai.
For the Indians, it was their first win over Australia in their history, with the first test between the two nations played in 1977.
Australia resumed the final day at 5-233 but added just 28 runs on the final day as India’s spinners broke through.
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur sent everything upstairs, having two crucial decisions overturned to send key batters Annabel Sutherland and Ashleigh Gardiner on their way.
India made short work of the tail, with Alana King’s forward defence not watertight to be bowled first ball and Rajeshwari Gayakwad taking the final two wickets as reward for an excellent wicketless spell on Day 3.
Australia was dismissed for 261, with India requiring just 75 runs to win.
Kim Garth was hit for four first ball of the innings but had Shafali Verma caught behind three balls later to spark some hope, but heads dropped when Beth Mooney dropped a regulation chance off Gardiner in the fourth over, and despite one more wicket with 20 runs left to get, the Australians never really lifted again.
Australian captain Alyssa Healy said it was an “amazing experience” to play red-ball cricket in India but a dismal first day put them too far behind the Eight ball.
“We probably just had one bad day, that first day, but the rest of the time we showed a lot of fight and I’m proud of our effort,” she said.
“If we’d batted that full first day, that cost us a lot, then leaking too many in the afternoon put us on the back foot.
“[If we’d scored] a touch over 300 and then if we’d been able to bowl at them after a full day in the field that might have been different but that’s the beauty of Test cricket, you’ve got to execute the whole way through.”
She said the Australians could take some confidence from the game into the remaining six games in the series, with three 50-over games and three T20s.
Smriti whacked Jess Jonassen over her head for four to complete the chase.
After the game, she said despite a few demons in the pitch it “wasn’t that difficult to bat on”.
“When we saw the pitch before the match we thought it’d be a rank turner on day three and four but I don’t think batting was that hard as well,” she said.
She said the 126-run partnership in the first innings between Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar.
“That was a partnership which won us the game,”
She said the chase hadn’t changed the way India batted, with just the small total in front of them
“We just batted the way we did in the first innings, just watched the ball and play,” she said.
“We weren’t too defensive, we bat the best when we just react to the ball.”
It’s India’s second win on the trot after defeating England by a whopping 347 runs.
DAY THREE RECAP: AUSTRALIA FIGHTING TO SAVE TEST
Australia just has its nose in front of India after a gritty and determined fightback but faces an uphill battle to continue its nearly decade-old unbeaten streak in the Test arena.
Australia finished the penultimate day in Mumbai at 5-233, 45 runs ahead of India after earlier in the day finally dismissing the hosts for 406.
The gritty batting display has put a miraculous win back on the cards – if only as an outside chance – meaning both sides will turn up to Wankhede Stadium on Christmas Eve with all three results in play.
A short-ball barrage ended Deepti Sharma’s innings on 78 after she was bowled by Garth, while Annabel Sutherland nabbed the other two wickets on offer on Day 3.
Australia started the second innings with a 49-run partnership between the openers before disaster once again struck.
After running out opening partner Phoebe Litchfield in the first dig, Beth Mooney ran herself out in the second following a brain fade.
The opener, who had struck a determined 33 from 37, wandered out of her crease after blocking a delivery.
The ball bounced into the hands of Richa Gosh, who threw it onto the stumps before Mooney put her bat back down.
Litchfield followed her back into the sheds soon after, reverse sweeping onto her stumps.
Tahlia McGrath and Ellyse Perry put on 84 runs together before the latter strangled one down the legside for a well-made 45.
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur caused a handful for the Australians with ball in hand with her wily off-spin, dismissing set batters Tahlia McGrath – who was bowled for 73 – and skipper Alyssa Healy, who was trapped in front for 32.
McGrath left enough of a gap between bat and pad for the ball to dribble off both onto the stumps, while Healy missed a hoiking sweep shot and was plumb.
Healy’s dismissal came the delivery after Kaur threw a ball back towards Healy with venom, with the ball deflecting off Healy’s bat and going to the fence for four runs.
Kaur could have finished the day with three wickets, as the captain nearly had Annabel Sutherland nearly dismissed LBW, with a review showing umpires call on whether it struck her in line with the stumps.
The DRS was called on multiple times, with Australians overturning several decisions which were given out, only to find the ball sliding down leg.
Sutherland and Ashleigh Gardiner were unbeaten at stumps on 12 and 7 respectively, with a mammoth task ahead of them to put a total on the board for India to chase on the final day.
After the day’s play, Australian coach Shelley Nitschke said she hoped a total of 150 or 200 runs ahead would be enough to make a fight of it.
“We’ll take anything but if you get up to 150 and 200 and you’re right in the game but we’ll still have to bowl really well, we know how well they bat in their own conditions,” she said.
“I’m proud of the way we applied ourselves in our batting today with some partnerships we didn’t have in the first innings.
“Our batting was more what we want it to be at.”
She said the short-ball barrage which nabbed three early wickets and broke the crucial partnership of Deepti and Pooja Vastrakar was decided overnight.
“We had a think and chat about it overnight and realised we needed to do something different to break that partnership.
“I thought we were in a good position when they came together but they batted really well.”
DAY TWO WRAP: AUSSIES STARING AT FIRST TEST LOSS SINCE 2014
Australia will need to pull off one of the greatest heists in Test cricket history to continue an unbeaten streak heading back to 2014 against India in Mumbai.
Alyssa Healy’s first match as full-time skipper has turned into a grind for the Australian attack, with nearly all of India’s batters putting a total on the board as they ground their way to 7-376 by the close of play.
With a few wickets falling just before tea, the Australians would have been hoping to wrap up the tail in short order and try to overcome a small deficit, but instead by the close of play found themselves 157 runs in arrears with three wickets still to get.
Deepti Sharma put together a composed 70 from 147 deliveries alongside Pooja Vastrakar (33 not out from 115), with the pair putting on 100 in the final session and set to continue on Day 3 to cause Australia more pain.
They built on impressive half centuries from Richa Ghosh (52 on debut), Smriti Mandhana (74), and Jemimah Rodrigues (73).
“I wanted to play my shots and play a normal game,” Ghosh said after the day’s play finished.
“We wanted to win each session. We played very well.”
While the pitch caused the Australians grief in the first innings, the Indian batters were hardly bothered by what they made look like a placid deck.
Healy turned to eight different bowlers across the day, with only Ash Gardiner (4-100) proving a consistent threat.
Australia was uncharacteristically poor in the field, with Ellyse Perry dropping a regulation chance at mid-off early on, and Tahlia McGrath having two regulation stops bounce past her to go to the rope.
Perry is the only player in the Australian line-up who has tasted defeat in the red-ball Test arena, as the sole player left from the Test against England in Perth in 2014.
That Test resulted in a 61-run win to the visitors, with Perry top-scoring in both innings for Australia with 71 and 31 and finishing with eight wickets for the match.
The Test will continue on Saturday at 3.10pm AEDT on Fox Cricket and Kayo.
DAY ONE: INDIA CLAIMS DOMINANT POSITION
Australia is in desperate need of early wickets on the second day of its historic Test against India after the hosts dominated the opening day in Mumbai.
Smriti Mandhana was 43 not out and Sneh Rana unbeaten on four at stumps as a 90-run opening stand between Shafali Verma and Mandhana put India in the driver’s seat.
Earlier, Phoebe Litchfield’s first taste of Test cricket in India turned to disaster when she was run out without facing a ball.
Australia was reeling at 2-7 after a mix-up between Litchfield and Beth Mooney and a Ellyse Perry’s early dismissal off the bowling of seamer Pooja Vastrakar.
Vastrakar extracted plenty of movement from the Mumbai pitch, dazzling the Australians with 4-53 from 16 overs.
Tahlia McGrath (50), Mooney (40) and captain Alyssa Healy (38) got starts but were unable to convert into the big score Australia was craving.
Day one would have been even more lopsided had it not been for a late rally from Australia’s lower-order.
From 8-168, Jess Jonassen (19) and Kim Garth (28 not out) rescued the innings and lifted Australia passed 200.
“We just didn’t stick at our plans for long enough,” McGrath said.
“There’s still a lot of cricket to be played in this game … hopefully we swing the momentum back.”
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