Brisbane, Aug 21: Excluded from India’s World Cup squad, Shafali Verma produced a 38-ball 35 before India Women’s A slipped to 93 for five against Australia on the rain-truncated first day of their unofficial Test despite, here on Thursday.
Shafali provided a brisk start to the side hitting eight fours. Her knock was critical since India had lost a couple of early wickets after being asked to bat first.
Nandini Kashyap (0) and Dhara Gujjar (0) departed without bothering the scorer to leave India reeling at 6/2 in the first two overs with Georgia Prestwidge (3/25) accounting for both batters.Tejal Hasabnis dropped anchor for a while with Shafali taking the attack to the opposition, but India were once again pegged back with a couple of wickets.Hasabnis (9 off 20) fell to Sianna Ginger and soon after Prestwidge cleaned up Shafali in the 11th over.
Raghvi Bist (26 not out) and Tanushree Sarkar (13) steadied the ship for a while but could not push on as the latter fell to Maitlan Brown at the score of 72.
Only 23.2 overs were bowled here at the Allan Border Field as rains intervened to keep the players off the field.
Bist, who was on 26 not out with five fours off 44 balls, was accompanied by Radha Yadav (8 not out).
Brief Scores: India Women’s A: 93/5 in 23.2 overs (Shafali Verma 35, Raghvi Bist 26 not out; Georgia Prestwidge 3/25). (PTI)
