39th over: India 177-6 (Harmanpreet 26, Kashvee 8) Harmanpreet shapes up to ramp Schutt behind the keeper but the bowler reins in her speed and the India skipper has to wait to get bat on ball. The slow motion scoop directs the ball straight into her helmet. A better version of much the same stroke helps Harmanpreet flick the ball behind to the fine leg rope. That’s the captain’s first boundary from 46 balls.
38th over: India 172-6 (Harmanpreet 22, Kashvee 7) Kashvee goes searching for a sweep but King digs the ball in a touch shorter and has protection on the leg-side. The ball trickles under the bat and Kashvee survives. King drifts down leg and the batter punishes her with a smarter sweep fine and to the rope. Kashvee fails to keep down another sweep and picks out Schutt running in off the rope at deep mid-wicket. The pacer makes up the ground but grasses a simple catch while sliding on her knees. India are yet to make Australia pay for being well below their usual standard in the field.
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37th over: India 167-6 (Harmanpreet 22, Kashvee 2) Megan Schutt returns with India looking shaky as wickets tumble around their skipper. Kashvee smashed three sixes and three boundaries in the first ODI in Brisbane but will have to play a more composed knock this time with India at risk of failing to bat out their overs.
36th over: India 163-6 (Harmanpreet 21, Kashvee 1) King gets the breakthrough just as Ghosh showed all the signs of putting together a big innings. The leg-spinner almost has another very next delivery with a half-hearted appeal for lbw. This time the ball hit the pad just outside the line.
WICKET! Ghosh lbw b King 22 (India 162-6)
Ghosh gets down on one knee and looks to sweep a fuller ball from King. She misses everything and the ball crashes into the middle of her pads. The umpire waves away the appeal but Healy is quick to send it upstairs. The replays show the ball pitched only just in line with leg stump but beyond that it has struck Ghosh in line with middle stump and would have hit it below the bails. Ghosh is beaten by the drift but the sweep probably wasn’t the shot.
35th over: India 160-5 (Harmanpreet 20, Ghosh 21) Ghosh continues to look like the dangerwoman but Carey nearly sends her on her way with an awkward length that cramps up the batter. She just gets her bat down in time to tickle the ball off the toe for a fortunate boundary to deep third.
34th over: India 153-5 (Harmanpreet 19, Ghosh 15) SIX! Ghosh is done with biding her time as she gets down on one knee and hammers the ball back down the ground to long-on. That’s the first six of the innings but just as crucially India keep the score ticking over better than they have been with four singles.
33rd over: India 143-5 (Harmanpreet 17, Ghosh 7) Carey is not at all pleased as the umpire signals a wide for the ball drifting down the leg-side. It looked and sounded like there was a bit of Ghosh’s pad on that. Mooney might have missed a stumping chance too when failing to glove the ball while the batter was falling forward and out of her crease. Brilliant fielding from King saves a boundary, with a knee slide next to the rope and taking the ball in her outside hand then flicking it behind her back.
32nd over: India 136-5 (Harmanpreet 13, Ghosh 6) Gardner has been a key to Australia turning this innings around and she concedes only a single to Ghosh to end the over with 1 for 20 from seven.
31st over: India 135-5 (Harmanpreet 13, Ghosh 5) Carey has her first wicket of the series Risha Ghosh is quick to get off the mark with a slicing cut to the rope.
WICKET! Amanjot c Mooney b Carey 13 (India 130-5)
Smart bowling from Nicola Carey has Amanjot Kaur reaching outside off-stump. But the wicket is all down to Beth Mooney who takes a sharp catch while keeping up at the stumps.
30th over: India 130-4 (Harmanpreet 13, Amanjot 13) Gardner varies her length to keep the batters guessing. Harmanpreet very nearly chips a fuller ball to Brown at cover.
29th over: India 128-4 (Harmanpreet 12, Amanjot 12) Harmanpreet chips King barely over Litchfield at cover. The young Australian leaps high but can’t quite reach the ball. Amanjot lifts King back over head with a controlled drive to the rope.
28th over: India 121-4 (Harmanpreet 10, Amanjot 7) Harmanpreet scampers through for a quick single but unlike earlier when little response from the India skipper helped cause Pratika Rawal’s downfall, the batters get through this time despite fine fielding from Litchfield.
27th over: India 117-4 (Harmanpreet 7, Amanjot 2) A rare loose delivery from Alana King gifts Amanjot Kaur with a waist high full toss that she punishes with a pull over midwicket.
26th over: India 112-4 (Harmanpreet 7, Amanjot 2) Darcie Brown replaces Annabel Sutherland and picks up where she left off with a mixed bag of wides and cracking deliveries that go away to relieving some of the pressure on India.
25th over: India 105-4 (Harmanpreet 3, Amanjot 1) The India wickets keep tumbling as they lose three scalps for five runs to hand the advantage back to Australia. Amanjot struggled with the bat in the T20s with meagre scores of three and one, but will need to build a partnership with the India captain to get their side back into the game after a bright start.
WICKET! Deepti c Carey b King 1 (India 103-4)
Deepti Sharma barely has her eye in but swings hard at a fuller delivery as she targets the deep midwicket rope. But Nicola King does not have to move and the veteran hangs onto a simple catch.
24th over: India 103-3 (Harmanpreet 2, Deepti 1) Sutherland has both of the two new batters under pressure and Harmanpreet is fortunate to survive a play and a miss outside off-stump.
23rd over: India 100-3 (Harmanpreet 1, Deepti 0) Deepti Sharma comes to the crease as Pratika Rawal’s fine knock ends with 52 from 81 deliveries. First signs that Australia are ready to turn the screws as Alana King bowls a maiden around the run out.
WICKET! Rawal run out (Sutherland/Mooney) 52 (India 100-3)
Pratika Rawal is the latest India batter to throw their wicket away as the opener cracks a drive to Sutherland at mid-on and sets off for a quick single while the captain turns her back and stands her ground. Harmanpreet barely moved from the moment the ball left King’s hand but there probably wasn’t a run in it anyway.
22nd over: India 100-2 (Rawal 52, Harmanpreet 1) Sutherland gets the crucial wicket of Rodrigues and goes to work on the India captain with off-cutters and a change of pace.
WICKET! Rodrigues c Mooney b Sutherland 11 (India 98-2)
Australia send their World Cup nemesis packing as Jemimah Rodrigues tries to cut too close to her body and can only get a nick to keeper Beth Mooney. Sutherland found some extra bounce to help claim the prized scalp.
21st over: India 97-1 (Rawal 50, Rodrigues 11) Rodrigues goes after King with a controlled chip over the infield and into space near deep cover. The India No 3 is up and running now even against Australia’s key strike bowler. Rawal brings up her fifty from 76 deliveries with a single to deep midwicket. That is her 10th time reaching 50 from 26 ODIs, as she sets out to compile a third century in the format.
20th over: India 92-1 (Rawal 48, Rodrigues 8) Another half chance goes begging as Rawal looks to clip the ball off her pads but instead gets a thick leading edge. Healy is a little slow to get moving at an unfamiliar mid-off and the ball crashes to the turf while the skipper is left shaking her head. Sutherland continues to look sharp and begins the over beating Rodrigues off an awkward length.
19th over: India 88-1 (Rawal 46, Rodrigues 6) Alana King is called in to the attack for the first time and almost gets Rawal as the opener drives on the up. The ball sails in between the bowler and mid-off who is quite wide. Some sharp fielding has Rawal scampering for a quick single and the direct hit calls for an umpire’s review. But the opener is comfortably behind the crease.
18th over: India 84-1 (Rawal 44, Rodrigues 4) A change of pace for India after the first wicket falls. Rodrigues glances to fine leg for an easy single, Rawal swings and misses before switching back on with a simpler square drive for one.
17th over: India 81-1 (Rawal 43, Rodrigues 3) Jemimah Rodrigues comes to the crease in place of Smriti Mandhana as the door opens for Australia. Rodrigues takes time to pick up the line and turn with a pair of outside edges, the second helping her get off the mark with two through a vacant first slip.
WICKET! Mandhana b Gardner 31 (India 78-1)
Smriti Mandhana throws her wicket away with India in command as the opener walks across her stumps and shapes up to scoop the ball before Gardner has barely released it from her hand. Australia are gifted the breakthrough they so desperately need.
16th over: India 77-0 (Rawal 42, Mandhana 31) Annabel Sutherland is thrown the ball with Australia still searching for a first breakthrough. Rawal edges the pacer through a vacant first slip to the rope – that looked like a controlled shot if not for the opener’s head spinning on a top to quickly check where the ball was flying. Mandhana swivels to pull a straight ball off her pads and through square leg for another boundary.
15th over: India 68-0 (Rawal 37, Mandhana 27) DROP! Mandhana dances down the pitch and sends a drive skyward. Tahlia McGrath tracks back and plants her feet. But the ball sails over her head and out of reach. That might not have even been a drop, as I’m not certain McGrath got a hand to the ball. That one needed to be held as Australia risk paying a huge price for the mounting number of missed opportunities.
14th over: India 64-0 (Rawal 35, Mandhana 25) Rawal drives over the top of cover to the rope. That was a sublime, controlled stroke and the India opener is looking more and more comfortable as her innings grows.
13th over: India 59-0 (Rawal 31, Mandhana 24) Rawal drives off the back foot with perhaps the shot of the day so for four. The batters are finding it hard to get Gardner away, but that was an exquisite stroke.
12th over: India 55-0 (Rawal 27, Mandhana 24) Georgia Voll gets down low in the gully to save four runs. Australia have been good in the field outside a few missed half chances. An unlikely slog from Mandhana brings up the 50-run stand with two to deep square. A nick past keeper Mooney runs away for an unconvincing four. Mandhana keeps getting away with a pretty streaky knock so far.
11th over: India 48-0 (Rawal 26, Mandhana 18) Gardner is proving hard to get away until Rawal reaches well beyond off-stump to slog-sweep to deep midwicket for two. Mandhana adds two more with a half-hearted drive to deep cover.
10th over: India 43-0 (Rawal 23, Mandhana 16) A double change for Australia as Nicola Carey takes the ball from Darcie Brown who continued her struggles with her line in this series. Mandhana has been using her feet throughout the innings and dances down the wicket to pick up a single to mid-off. Rawal adds one off a wider delivery sent through cover.
9th over: India 41-0 (Rawal 22, Mandhana 15) Ash Gardner takes the ball after grassing a difficult chance. Varied pace, line and length from the off-spinner helps Australia to their first maiden of the innings.
8th over: India 41-0 (Rawal 22, Mandhana 15) DROP! Ash Gardner spills a tough chance off Mandhana as she scampers to her left and dives hard but the ball bounces out of her left hand. Rawal drives Brown for three earlier in the over as the score keeps ticking over.
7th over: India 36-0 (Rawal 18, Mandhana 14) The tidiest over yet for Australia with just a leg-bye conceded. The run-rate was pushing six an over before that, and the hosts are still chasing a first wicket on what looks like a good deck for the batters.
6th over: India 35-0 (Rawal 18, Mandhana 14) Brown is backed to continue for a third over with Australia needing a breakthrough. Rawal picks off a couple of singles through square leg, while Mandhana makes the most of a thick inside edge for a single to long leg.
5th over: India 31-0 (Rawal 16, Mandhana 13) Chance? Mandhana slices at a wider ball and a nick carries it through gully and just out of reach. The Australian bowlers won’t mind the batters struggling to keep the ball down even as Schutt concedes a boundary. Rawal picks up four runs earlier with a textbook square drive through point.
4th over: India 22-0 (Rawal 11, Mandhana 9) Brown begins the over with two wides in three balls but once she finds her line very nearly dismisses Mandhana. The opener chases a moving ball and is fortunate to watch an edge fly between keeper Mooney and Healy at first slip to the boundary. Brown ends the entertaining over asking for a catch but replays confirm it was a bump ball.
3rd over: India 14-0 (Rawal 11, Mandhana 3) Mandhana stretches to make use of Schutt offering too much width for a single to deep point. Schutt has the ball moving around but Rawal hits against the swing into her to crunch the first boundary of the innings through cover. Rawal repeats the shot for the same result as the fast outfield favours the batters.
2nd over: India 5-0 (Rawal 3, Mandhana 2) Darcie Brown takes the new ball but wastes her opening delivery with a full toss that Mandhana dispatches to deep square leg. Brown is fortunate to get away with a single. Rawal picks up two with a flick to the same region.
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1st over: India 2-0 (Rawal 1, Mandhana 1) Pratika Rawal gets off the mark with an unconvincing dab off the front foot to gully. The India opener might just be pleased to survive the first over after a second-ball duck in Brisbane. Smriti Mandhana has been in fine touch throughout the multi-format series and immediately eases a single to cover.
India openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal make their way to the middle at Bellerive Oval and will be hoping for a much better start than they had in Brisbane. Megan Schutt has the ball in hand, Beth Mooney has the gloves and is standing back from the stumps as we’re about to get under way in Hobart …
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Australia all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner is not getting carried away with the emphatic victory over India in the first ODI on Tuesday, especially with the multi-format series tied at 4-4 with eight points still up for grabs. Gardner spoke yesterday during the build up to the second ODI in Hobart
We have played some good cricket along the way and have played some not-so good cricket in patches as well. So being able for us to string that together, I felt like that last game was kind of a perfect performance. I thought the bowlers really set the tone and then we chased down that total pretty convincingly.
What we did really well was just focus on ourselves and make sure to keep our gameplan really simple – adapt when it was necessary. And that’s obviously what we’re going to have to do tomorrow as well, making sure we’re adapting to whatever is in front of us. The other day, bowling first was probably what we wanted to do and it [batting] was pretty challenging early, in both innings those first 10 overs were going to be the most challenging. We know they [India] want to take the game on … just being able to adapt, full stop, is our mode going forward.
India XI
India: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amanjot Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kashvee Gautam, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma
Vaishnavi Sharma is handed an ODI debut while Harmanpreet Kaur says Shafali Verma has been “rested”. The India skipper was not able to field in the ODI in Brisbane just three days ago but is confident she has shaken off a “niggle” with her left knee. Renuka Singh is also out of the side from the first ODI, with all-rounder Amanjot Kaur included.
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Australia XI
Australia: Alyssa Healy (c), Phoebe Litchfield, Georgia Voll, Beth Mooney (wk), Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Nicola Carey, Alana King, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown.
Nicola Carey continues her resurgence in the Australia side as the experienced all-rounder is called in to replace injured team leader Sophie Molineux. No other changes for Australia as they aim for back-to-back ODI wins.
Sophie Molineux ruled out of rest of series
Australia’s captain elect Sophie Molineux will miss the remainder of the multi-format series against India due to lower back pain.
Molineux has a long history of injury concerns but was backed to replace retiring skipper Alyssa Healy after the home series against India, and already took charge of the three T20s just gone. The 28-year-old will now watch the two remaining ODIs and one-off Test against India from the sidelines while aiming to be fit for the upcoming tour to the West Indies.
India win the toss and elect to bat
India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur calls correctly and takes no time in choosing to bat first.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the second women’s one-day international between Australia and India in Hobart. The multi-format series is all square after the tourists claimed a 4-2 lead on points during a drought-breaking T20I series win, and Australia bounced back to win the opening ODI by six wickets in Brisbane on Tuesday. Two more points will be on offer today at Bellerive Oval, with the same up for grabs at the venue in the third and final ODI in the series on Sunday. The Test that will follow the white-ball matches will be worth four points.
Australia looked more settled in the first ODI than they had been during a strangely shaky T20 series, especially with Alyssa Healy back in charge and batting at the top of the order. The departing captain kicked off her farewell tour in style after sitting out the T20s, plundering a half-century to help set the tone as Australia chased down a meagre 215-run target on a seaming deck with 70 balls to spare.
Beth Mooney was back to her brilliant best with 76 from 78 balls, while Annabel Sutherland steered the side home with an unbeaten 48. Young spinner Shree Charani was the pick of the India bowlers with 2 for 41 as she claimed the wickets of Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Voll in consecutive deliveries.
The India innings never really got going after opener Pratika Rawal was dismissed second ball, though Smriti Mandhana (58) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (53) went some way to building a partnership through the middle overs. Ashleigh Gardner claimed 3 for 33 after pacers Megan Schutt (2 for 42) and Darcie Brown (1 for 24) did the damage early.
India will need to rediscover the sharpness they put on show across all parts of the game during the T20I leg of the series to ensure the broader campaign doesn’t slip from their grasp before they leave Hobart.
The toss and confirmed teams will be coming up shortly – with first ball to be bowled at 2.50pm AEDT / 9.20 IST – in the meantime, get in touch with your thoughts, musings and predictions. Drop me an email or find me @martinpegan on Bluesky or X.
