Key events
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.
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 …
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.
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
Martin Pegan
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.
