India take control after day of batting dominance

India produced a classic Test match batting performance on the second day of the one-off Test against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday (December 22) to move into complete control. At Stumps, half-centuries from four batters and two century stands either side of a second-session stutter propelled them to 376/6, leading by 157 runs.

When India began proceedings on Thursday, little would they have envisioned that they’d go on to have an even better day of Test cricket than they did on Wednesday after losing the toss, against the best team on the circuit. They’d wiped out 98 runs off Australia’s total but further success depended on how they navigated the opening session today.

To that regard they enjoyed the perfect hour, or 55 minutes with Smriti Mandhana moving serenely to her third half-century in Test cricket. Even though Ashleigh Gardner, Australia’s best by a distance, routinely troubled both Mandhana and Sneh Rana, a breakthrough proved elusive. India also caught the visitors at their benevolent best and Tahlia McGrath’s twin misfields off successive deliveries both went for boundaries and allowed the hosts to take large chunks out of the deficit.

Fittingly, it was Gardner that struck the first blow for Australia when she had Rana play inside the line to a delivery and had her stumps rattled. India then opened a door for Australia to fight back courtesy a miscommunication between Richa Ghosh and Mandhana, which resulted in the latter’s run-out for 74.

Played up the order on her debut, Ghosh then forged an alliance with Jemimah Rodrigues and the pair set about rebuilding India’s innings. India went to Lunch without any further casualty having come to within 57 runs off their opposition’s first-innings total of 219.

The partnership flourished post the lunch interval with the pair’s astute running between the wickets and their decision to sweep the spinners off the stumps being notable highlights. Both batters got to their half-centuries and India had comfortably moved into the lead when Australia brought forth their famed bounce-back-ability.

Kim Garth ended the 113-run stand when her short-ball ploy bore fruit and elicited a miscued pull from Ghosh. Three balls later captain Harmanpreet Kaur was trapped LBW by a Gardner grubber. The offspinner also trapped Yastika Bhatia LBW and had the well-set Rodrigues hit a floaty delivery to the hands of cover to fall for 73. India lost 4 for 14 inside nine overs with the lead barely over 50.

If that period post drinks interval and before Tea was reason for Australian optimism that India could be rolled over for a lead under 100 and then put pressure on in the fourth innings, that was dispelled rather spectacularly by Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar. The pair batted cautiously in the first part of the final session and as the bowlers tired and the ball got softer, the shots began to flow.

Deepti, with a half-century to her name in each of her last three Tests, made it four from four and moved to 70 while Vastrakar was resolute in defence and ensured a wicketless final session for the hosts. The pair added 102 runs going into Stumps and on a pitch expected to deteriorate over the next two days, left Australia buried under a mountain of runs.

Brief scores:
India Women 376/7 (Smriti Mandhana 74, Jemimah Rodrigues 73, Deepti Sharma 70*; Ashleigh Gardner 4-100) lead Australia Women 219 by 157 runs.