Rawal, Mandhana, Deol fifties take India Women's to 281/7 against Australia in first ODI
Mullanpur, Sep 14 (PTI): Half-centuries by Pratika Rawal (64), Smriti Mandhana (58) and Harleen Deol (54) powered India Women's to a competitive 281 for seven in the first One-Day International of the three-match series against Australia here on Sunday.
India were served well by their top order batters with each of them hitting their stride to make significant contributions, even as the middle order players did not get going.
Rawal and Mandhana put on 114 for the first wicket — now the third highest for India against Australia -- showing why they have been a force to reckon with as a pair.
Australia, on their part, used as many as eight bowling options to get their players up and running in Indian conditions, with the ODI World Cup now a fortnight away.
On a conducive wicket, both India and Australia fought hard for control of the proceedings as after the fall of Mandhana in the 22nd over, the visitors tightened the screws.
Mandhana's charge ended with an embarrassing mix-up with her opening partner. The India vice-captain set off for a sharp single after hitting it towards Phoebe Litchfield at extra cover but Rawal denied the single, leaving Mandhana in no state to turn and make it back in time.
If not for that run-out, Mandhana was set for a big score having batted fluently for her half-century, which included six fours and two sixes.
This was shortly after Rawal brought up her fifty two balls earlier — her sixth in the format — but she too could not push on for a bigger score.
Rawal perished in the 31st over when she went for a slog against Alana King but found Ellyse Perry at midwicket, who did not fumble in taking a regulation grab.
India, who had crossed the 100-run mark by the 18th over following a positive start, had crawled to 168 for three after the 35th with only four boundaries — one four and three sixes — being hit during this passage of play.
Like the openers, Harleen too batted with a lot of intent hitting four fours and two sixes during her knock, which came off 57 balls.
Even though India did struggle in the middle overs to accelerate and find regular boundaries, they managed to forge vital partnerships all the way through the end to put up a formidable total on board.
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A 99-run loss is unacceptable: Hayden blames batting horror
Ahmedabad (PTI): Gujarat Titans' batting coach Matthew Hayden was scathing about their 99-run defeat to Mumbai Indians, blaming a "horror" batting display and poor death bowling for the heavy loss in the IPL.
From being 44/3 in 5.5 overs, MI hammered 73 runs in the last four overs to post a challenging 199/5 here on Monday. In reply, GT were bundled out for 100.
"I expect our margins to be a lot smaller than 100 (99). That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit," the legendary Australian opener told media in the post-match interaction.
"It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about this day, really, apart from Rabada's performance with the ball. so we've got some work to do, definitely."
GT boast a strong batting line-up in Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), Shubman Gill (717), and Jos Buttler (538). They have also added New Zealand’s explosive Glenn Phillips in the middle order alongside Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia.
"When you look down at our batting line-up, we've got wonderful players that have to be in a better mindset and better position to take their opportunities. That is our expectations and has been since the conception of this Gujarat Titans franchise...
"So you can't be sitting here and being happy about, a 100-run (99) margin game in a 20-over game. I mean, back in my day, 100 runs was almost a winning total in 50-over cricket!"
The 54-year-old said GT lost the game in the powerplay.
"Well, middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. When they're coming in with six overs, you know that you're in deep trouble. The thing about the power plays is that you can't win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it, and we lost it in the power play," he said.
Shahrukh (35 off 25 balls) and Tewatia (49 off 42) have not fared well this season and Hayden feels the duo along with Phillips (67 off 54 balls) have been struggling because the top order has been below its best.
"The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips -- his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you'll take that all day long in the majority of games," Hayden said.
"However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion's share of the batting. We shouldn't be allowing, Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That's not their role. That's not what they train for."
Hayden said GT has an aggressive and adaptable unit but their execution fell apart on the day.
"We are a very good thinking batting unit. We're not a conservative batting unit. You don't go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they're an adaptive batting unit. ...they've got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn't.
"So the worry isn't just today about the middle order. It'd be unfair to say that, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking."
It was poorly executed bowling effort
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Hayden also pointed to poor execution in the death overs.
"I feel like one-dimensional is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening.
"When you look back at those last four overs, that was just a 'horror story' -- 73 off the last four is unacceptable as world-class players. That bowling line-up has to reflect on that performance... It was purely an executional thing."
He added that GT were below par with the ball on a surface that didn’t fully justify the high total.
"We're very average with the ball, firstly, on a wicket that I really felt was probably a 175-type wicket.
"When you look historically at this black soil pitch on No. 5, it's a 200-wicket for the loss of five batters. That's been its winning first-inning score, and today it wasn't that wicket (199/5)... It was visible that it had cracks in it. It was visible that it was up and down.
"So credit also has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance. It wasn't a cookie-cutter type performance. It was a dominant performance down the ground. He read the play nicely. He was able to pick up and play with power and precision."
Hayden said the chase was still within reach but poor shot selection proved costly.
"And when you reflect on our own batting, we had one side of the ground that was a little more inaccessible than the other, and we lost, what, three wickets into the bigger side of that boundary.
"And it wasn't an impossible total. 200 still is a total that I would back our three world-class players at the top of the order to etch into that a bit more and then allow our more sort of game players. An opportunity to set out their stalls and bat deep into the innings."
