Mumbai, Dec 21: Pooja Vastrakar claimed her best Test figures in her third Test, 4/53 and Sneh Rana bagged 3-56 as India Women bundled out Australia Women for 219 and then knocked off 98 runs for the loss of one wicket to take the honours on the opening day of the only Test of the multi-format series, at the Wankhede Stadium here on Thursday.
Australia’s first innings, which lasted 77.4 overs and 305 minutes, was boosted by a superb counter-attacking half-century by Tahila McGrath (50 off 56 balls), who hammered the fastest Test half-century by an Australian woman batter off 52 deliveries. Beth Mooney contributed a patient 40 and skipper Alyssa Healy scored 38 but the rest of the batters failed to fire.
In reply, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma batted freely, hitting some beautiful shots as India raced to 50 in 46 balls) Both capitalised on the wayward bowling by the Australians, hitting 12 boundaries in the first nine overs. They added 90 runs for the opening wicket before Shafali Verma was out for 40, trapped before the wicket as she missed a straight one. Her 40 off 59 was studded with eight boundaries.
The Indian batters, who had blasted 410/7 on the opening day of the previous Test against England, scored at a fast pace once again.
Australia skipper Alyssa Healy used five bowlers but none of them could make much impression on the Indian openers.
At stumps, Smriti Mandhana was batting on 43 off 49 balls (8×4) with Sneh Rana keeping her company at four. India would now look to bat through the second day to take a big lead and put further pressure on the Australian Women, who are playing a Test in India after 40 years.
Earlier, Healy could not have imagined that they would be out cheaply when she won the toss and elected to bat in her debut Test as captain They got off to a poor start but recovered a bit before losing two wickets late in the first session as the hosts took control of the proceedings on the first day. (PTI)
