Amanda-Jade Wellington and Pooja Vastrakar also impressed with their performances.
The second match between India Women and Australia Women in the ongoing ICC Women's Championship began at Vadodara on March 15, 2018. India women team trailed in the series 1-0 and had a lot of ground to cover up.
Mithali Raj returned to captain India and won the toss, deciding to bat first.
Australian women’s innings was shouldered by last match centurion Nicole Bolton, who made 84 in 88 balls with 12 fours. Captain Meg Lanning hit 24, but Ellyse Perry hit a brilliant run-a-ball 70* with 6 fours and 3 sixes.
Beth Mooney provided the end of the innings impetus with 56 runs in 40 balls with 9 fours, as Australia Women ended up on 287/9 in 50 overs.
The best bowler for India proved to be Shikha Pandey who picked up 3/61 in her 10 overs. Poonam Yadav picked two wickets for 52.
Smriti Mandhana hit a quickfire 67 off 53 balls with 12 fours and 1 six, as Punam Raut struggled at the other end to get going, scoring 27 off 61 balls. Jonassen removed Mandhana and Gardner removed Raut to give a jolt to India women. Mithali Raj looked good for her 15, before Perry had her caught behind by Healy.
Harmanpreet (17), Veda (2) and Sushma Verma (8) all fell for cheap and Australia Women gained the upper hand in the match, putting India women out of contention. Australia women bowler Jess Jonassen (3/51) and Amanda-Jade Wellington (2/20) were the main wicket takers for their team.
Though Pooja Vastrakar hit some lusty blows in the end, the target was too far away from the grasp of the Indian women’s team. Australia bowled out India for 227 runs in the final over to win the match by 60 runs. Ellyse Perry picked up the final wicket to fall.
Australia women went 2-0 up in the three match ODI series with one game to go.
BRIEF SCORES:
AUS-W 287/9 (N BOLTON 84, E PERRY 70*; S PANDEY 3/61) defeated IND-W 227 (S MANDHANA 67, P VASTRAKAR 30; J JONASSEN 3/51) by 60 runs