Published: Mar 15, 2018, 08:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 15, 2018, 12:17 PM (IST)
Good Morning! Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog of the Australia Women’s tour of India. Australia are set to make it 2 out of 2 at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara after thumping win over India Women by 8 wickets in the first game. Australia carried their warm-up matches form in the first ODI as well and crushed India with their clinical performance. Nicole Bolton’s century set the tone as Australia chased a target of 201.
Mithali’s Raj absence hurt the Indian Women. The skipper missed the first game for being unwell. However, the regular skipper was seen practicing in the nets on Wednesday morning and is likely to be available for the crunch tie. The Indian batters would need to step up unlike the previous game where they succumbed to the Australian bowlers, Amanda-Jade Wellington and Jess Jonassen.
The Indian bowlers, too, have a task on hand, especially in absence of their spearhead Jhulan Goswami. India could, however, take some cues from Pooja Vastrakar and Sushma Verma’s fine knocks under pressure.
Squads:
India Women: Mithali Raj (c), Sushma Verma (wk), Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Ekta Bisht, Mona Meshram, Sukanya Parida
Australia Women: Meg Lanning (c), Nicole Bolton, Alyssa Healy (wk), Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Rachael Haynes, Ashleigh Gardner, Nicola Carey, Megan Schutt, Jess Jonassen, Amanda Wellington, Sophie Molineux, Belinda Vakarewa, Elyse Villani
