Alex Blackwell, Ellyse Perry take Australia women to 276-6 against India Women in 1st ODI at Canberra

Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry built up a 180-run partnership.

A brilliant partnership between Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry power the hosts Australia Women to put up a huge target of 276 for 6 against the visitors India Women in the first One-Day International (ODI) at Canberra. India Women looked confident entering the ODI series as they had already won the three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series 2-1 earlier but the Australia Women, commonly known as Southern Stars, have showed great display of cricket as they came  back in the last T20I and are now dominating with a massive target to chase for India Women. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: India Women vs Australia Women, 1st ODI at Canberra

Winning the toss, Australia Women decided to bat first. Jhulan Goswami did her usual job as she removed opener Nicole Bolton for a solitary run. Meg Lanning had already started hitting biggies and elevated the runrate. Lanning departed for a 46-ball 43 and Alex Blackwell came in to join Ellyse Perry at the crease. The Australia Women looked unstoppable from then on. Perry and Blackwell reached their 50 in the same over and went on scoring. Blackwell got to her 100 off 102 balls. The partnership added 180 runs to the scoreboard. Blackwell was removed by Rajeshwari Gayakwad for 114 but the damage had been done by then. LIVE UPDATES: India Women vs Australia Women 2015-16, 1st ODI at Canberra

India got a few wickets in quick succession in the end overs as Shikha Pandey took the wickets of Ellyse Perry and Grace Harris. Harris made her ODI debut with the match and scored 2 runs while Perry got out for 90. With a couple of boundaries from Alyssa Healy, Australia put up 276 runs with the loss of 6 wickets after their 50 overs. For a record, India Women have never scored beyond 240 batting second and the target is quite challenging for the visiting ladies.

Amongst India Women bowlers, Shikha Pandey remained the most successful as she took 3 for 32. Jhulan Goswami and Rajeshwari Gayakwad got a wicket each while the others remained wicketless.

Brief Scores:

Australia Women 276 for 6 (Alex Blackwell 114, Ellyse Perry 90; Shikha Pandey 3 for 32) vs India Women

(Paulami Chakraborty, a singer, dancer, artist, and photographer, loves the madness of cricket and writes about the game. She can be followed on Twitter at @Polotwitts)

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