India eves eye series-levelling win against in-form Australia

Harmanpreet Kaur

India will have to rectify their shortcomings when they face an ascending Australia in a must-win second game of the three-match series, which is part of the ICC Women's ODI Championship.

The hosts were given a rude shock in the series opener where Australia romped to an eight-wicket win with almost 18 overs to spare.

The Indian batswomen will have to do a lot better than what they managed against the Australian spinners, who shared eights wickets between them on Monday. The bowlers expectedly were unable to defend a modest 201-run target and they were let down by not just the batting but also the fielding.

If it weren't for the 76-run eighth wicket stand between Sushma Verma and Pooja Vastrakar, the home team could have been humiliated further.

Captain Mithali Raj's absence also hurt India who would be hoping to have her fit for the crunch game tomorrow.

"You can't expect the lower-order to put up a competitive total. Our senior batswomen need to step up. Our fielding also needs improvement and we need to bowl according to the field," stand-in captain Harmanpreet Kaur said after the loss.

The experienced opening combination of Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Raut will have to ensure a solid start to the innings. 17-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues could not do much on her ODI debut and it remains to be seen if she keeps her place after Mithali's return.

The bowlers too need to up their game as they were not able to pose any sort of threat to the Australians, who raced to the target with ease.

Opener Nicole Bolton was in sublime touch, hitting an unbeaten 100. She would be expected to do the same tomorrow while her partner Alyssa Healy would not want to throw away a promising start again.

Captain Meg Lanning too was amongst runs before she ran herself out.

Nonetheless, it was a dominating performance from Australia who had lost to India in the World Cup semifinals.

"It's a great start to the series. I am happy to be back on the field. We wanted to be aggressive with the bat and Nicole Bolton led the way for us. Our consistency with the ball and on the field is probably something we can improve," Lanning said going into the second ODI.

Squads:
India: Mithali Raj (captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sushma Verma, Ekta Bist, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Mona Meshram, Poonam Yadav, Sukanya Parida

Australia: Meg Lanning (captain), Alyssa Healy, Nicole Bolton, Nicola Carey, Ellyse Perry, Elyse Velani, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachel Haynes, Jess Jonassen, Sophie Molineux, Megan Schutt, Beh Mooney, Belinda Vakarewa, Amanda Jade-Wellington.

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