India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was ecstatic after her team defeated Australia by 8 wickets in the one-off Test which was played in Mumbai. This was a historic win for India, as it was their first victory over Australia in Women’s Tests.
The women’s team of Australia had won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 219 runs in the first innings, thanks to 50 from Tahlia McGrath and 40 from Beth Mooney. Pooja Vastrakar took 4/53 for India, while Sneh Rana took 3/56.
India responded with 406 runs, led by Smriti Mandhana (74), Jemimah Rodrigues (73), Deepti Sharma (78), Richa Ghosh (52) on Test debut, and Pooja Vastrakar (47). Australia's Ashleigh Gardner took four wickets.
Australia fared better in the second innings, scoring 261 runs. Tahlia McGrath scored 73 points, her second fifty-point game of the season. Ellyse Perry scored 45 points, while Beth Mooney scored 38. Sneh Rana took 4/63 for India, cutting Australia's lead to 74 runs.
Smriti Mandhana remained unbeaten on 38 and though India lost two wickets, they registered an easy 8-wicket win. Sneh Rana was given the Player of the Match for her 7 wickets in the encounter.
Talking in the post-match presentation, captain Harmanpreet Kaur thanked the coaches and the players for their hard work and determination.
She said: “It’s a reward for all the hard work we have done for so many years. Credit goes to all our support staff, especially our bowling coach and batting coach. We tried to keep things very simple. It's a reward for all the hard work and all the patience. We thought if we can play some positive cricket, it can help us. We have been playing with this bunch for so many years and if we could do shuffle a bit here and there. We put Richa up, we know how she can bat, if she's there she can damage the game, that's the reason we put her there. We didn't want to go back to defensive cricket. We needed to stay in the moment. In the second innings, the partnerships helped them put a decent total on the board. We showed trust in our bowling unit and our support staff asked me to bowl and I got those crucial wickets at that time. Everyone in the team contributed, everyone was there to win the game for the team. Our bowling coach is telling them about how to take wickets and not be defensive. That's helping us.”
Harmanpreet Kaur also thanked the BCCI for giving them a chance to play Test cricket and hoped that they will get to play more red-ball cricket in the coming years. She also had a huge thank you to the crowd for coming to the ground to support them.
“Firstly, I want to thank BCCI for giving us this opportunity, and secondly all our selectors - they have given us the best side and shown trust in each and every member. When everything works together, you get positive results. Hopefully, we'll get many more Test games in upcoming years. Thanks to the crowd. Everything went really well for us,” she added.
The two teams will now clash in a series of 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is, which begins from December 28 onwards.
(Star Sports inputs)
