Mumbai, Dec 22: Smriti Mandhana (74), Jemimah Rodrigues (73), Richa Ghosh (52) and Deepti Sharma (70*) struck superb half-centuries as India recovered from losing four wickets for 18 runs just before Tea to help take a 157-run lead with three wickets remaining against Australia Women at the end of the second day of the one-off Test of the multi-format series at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.
At stumps, India were 376/7 in 110 overs with Deepti Sharma batting on 70 and Pooja Vastrakar keeping her company on 33. The duo added 102 runs for the eighth-wicket partnership of 143 minutes and 242 balls that rescued India from 276/7 at Tea.
India thus were enjoying a healthy lead of 157 runs with three wickets remaining in their first innings.
It was Deepti Sharma and Vastrakar that put India in the driver’s seat from where they would like to bat on for at least a session on the third day of the four-day match and extend the lead to at least 250 runs.Having raised 90 runs for the opening wicket on the first day on Thursday, Mandhana struck the third half-century of her six-Test career and added 50 runs for the second wicket partnership with Sneh Rana (8).
Richa Ghosh struck her maiden half-century and raised a 113-run partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues, who scored her second successive half-century, for the fourth wicket helping India gain the lead after bundling out the mighty Aussies for just 219 on the opening day. They took India from 147/2 to 260/3 before India suffered a collapse that gave Australia a chance to gain a foothold in the match.
An untimely decision to quicken the scoring rate after the drinks break in the post-lunch session resulted in Richa Ghosh (52), Harmanpreet Kaur (0), Yastika Bhatia (1) and Jemimah losing (73) their wickets in quick succession as India collapsed TO 274/7, their lead just 55 runs with three wickets remaining.
However, Deepti Sharma came to India’s rescue once again as she raised a half-century partnership for the eighth wicket with Pooja Vastrakar to wrest back the initiative and put India back into the driver’s seat in this Test.The first session belonged to India as they reached 193/3 at lunch after starting at the overnight score of 98/1.
With the ball keeping low on a pitch that still looks good for batting, Mandhana played cautiously as she started on her overnight score of 43 and thwarted Australia’s attempts to take early wickets and make inroads into the Indian innings. Mandhana scored 74, and with Sneh Rana (8) added 50 runs for the second wicket as India Women reached 193/3 in 52 overs at lunch on the second day of the four-day match. (PTI)
