Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur: Jemimah Rodrigues (73) struck a second successive half-century in Tests while Richa Ghosh (52) scored a fifty on debut as they shared a 113-run partnership but India Women lost three quick wickets and handed some of the advantage to Australia in the second session on Day 2 of the one-off Test at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.India were 276/7 in 81 overs at Tea with Deepti Sharma, who scored a half-century in the previous Test at the DY Patil stadium against England, batting on four and Pooja Vastrakar on 1. India now lead by 57 runs with just three more wickets in hand.
India allowed Australia to get a foothold in the match as the hosts lost four wickets for 83 runs, conceding this session after dominating the first four.
Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues continued to build the innings from the lunch score of 193/3 as they completed the half-century and then the century of their partnership, both completing their half-centuries in the process as India reached 250/3 in 68 overs.
However, after the drinks break in the second session, both Jemimah and Richa tried to go after the bowling, looking to shore up the scoring and triggering a collapse.
Jemimah struck boundaries off successive balls off Jess Jonassen — dancing down the pitch to swing through the line over mid-on that goes one-bounce across the roop. The second one inside-out drive along the turf through covers.
In the next over, the Indians triggered their own downfall. After a heave across the line off Kim Garth fetches her two runs, Ghosh spoons a simple catch off a back-of-a-length delivery, swinging across the line but the ball falls just short of Ellyse Perry, who is a bit late to react.
She doesn’t learn from that mistake and is out two deliveries later as the 20-year-old from Siliguri, West Bengal, is back in the pavilion.
Garth bangs one short on the middle and leg and Richa plays a pull shot without getting into proper position, fails to connect cleanly and offers a simple catch to Gardner at deep backward square. She is out for 52 off 104 balls, hitting seven fours.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur did not trouble the scorer much as she fell victim to the low bounce. A delivery from Gardner keeps very low and evades the Indian captain’s defensive prod to hit the front pad. Harmanpreet reviews it but the verdict comes out as an ‘umpire’s call’ — India down to 261/5, leading by 42 runs with five more wickets in hand.
It became 265/6 when Yastika Bhatia attempted a sweep off a ball pitched on the middle stump, missed and was caught plumb in front. DRS shows the ball would have crashed into the stumps and Yastika has to go and India loses three wickets for seven runs in 26 balls.
Jemimah, who had watched the carnage from the other side, failed to go all the way to her maiden century as she drove uppishly at a Gardner delivery pitched outside off and Annabel Sutherland took a sharp catch at extra cover. Jamimah’s superb 73 came off 121 balls and was studded with nine fours.
It was a brilliant knock by the 23-year-old from Mumbai and a clean one at it as she rarely gave any chance till she got out to Gardner.
