Key events
6th over: India 23-0 (Smriti 9, Pratika 14)
Pratika is piercing through the infield with relative ease at the moment, finding runs even when she can’t quite find the boundary. Schutt has such a look of disappointment on her face even when she only gives away a single – you can see how much this means to her to have a strong performance here. It’s a tight over from her, just the 2 runs from it.
5th over: India 21-0 (Smriti 8, Pratika 13)
Garth continues her spell and Smriti starts with a single that the crowd reacts to as if it was a match-winning boundary. Love this enthusiasm! They’re rewarded with a boundary next ball – Pratika gets her feet moving early and flicks one off her pads to send it sailing down to the toblerone. Garth tightens up her line and keeps the scoring to a minimum for the rest of the over.
4th over: India 15-0 (Smriti 7, Pratika 8)
Another over from Schutt, and Pratika starts it with a nice cover drive, but there’s a fielder to cut it off before it gets near the boundary and she has to settle for a single. Healy comes up to the stumps to put a bit more pressure on the batters, but Pratika isn’t bothered, she finds a gap between mid-on and mid-wicket for her first boundary of the match.
3rd over: India 9-0 (Smriti 6, Pratika 3)
The roar of the crowd is so intense every time the ball gets past the infield. If an Indian player hits a six, the place may well explode! Garth bowls her second over and she continues to hit that full, straight length. She varies it slightly with a wide ball almost creates a chance when she gets Pratika reaching and there’s some air under the ball, but it falls safely. Pratika gets off strike with a pull shot late in the over to give Smriti the last ball, but she just plays it defensively.
2nd over: India 7-0 (Smriti 5, Pratika 2)
Schutt bowls her first over of the match, with Pratika back on strike. The first ball is hit back past her, but there’s cover there and it’s just a dot. Schutt is bowling a very full length, that Pratika is defending comfortably, but she could easily become frustrated if she has to keep defending and can’t score runs. Eventually she find a gap and rotates the strike and Smriti also finds a single the following ball.
1st over: India 5-0 (Smriti 4, Pratika 1)
Garth opens the bowling for Australia, with Pratika taking strike to start the match. She thinks she might have snuck the first ball past the infield, but it’s saved by a diving Alana King. Garth starts with full, straight bowling, really targeting the stumps at the start of this game. Pratika gets off the mark with a back foot punch that flies towards the boundary, but is cut off for just a single. Smriti starts her innings watchfully with a couple of defensive shots. On the final ball of the over, Garth misses her line a little and Smriti drives one past point for four.
The teams are on the field now and national anthems are underway. Not long until the first ball is bowled.
Maddy has also sent an email, she is watching this match with plenty of anticipation!
Evening Megan!
Hope this is a ripper of a game tonight. Will be so very interesting to see how these teams match up. Such a relief the weather will let it play out.
I think the biggest test for the Aussies will be if the top order can build good partnerships and avoid collapses. Especially important in front of a capacity crowd!
An email from Guy Hornsby has hit my inbox with the subject line Bring it on
Great day for the game, and glad they’re not playing in my fog-bound Manchester. This should be fascinating. I think India are under the greater pressure here, as hosts with all the expectations that come with that. Australia are just so ridiculously talented that it’s hard to see them falling over again like they did against Pakistan, but this world cup seems to have reversed the periods where batting is easier, so it’s really close to call.
I agree Guy, on paper you’d think Australia have got this one under control, but as we all know, cricket games aren’t played on paper. Anything could happen here and let’s hope lots of excitement does!
Key for both teams today will be the opening pair getting things off to a good start. None of the four openers in today’s game have racked up the kind of score they would have liked to have so far this tournament. They will be looking to create a strong platform rather than relying on relying on the middle order or the tail to save the day for them.
Just one change to the Australian team – as we suspected, Molineux has come into the XI for this match, with Wareham missing out. India meanwhile, are unchanged from their loss to South Africa, opting to back that team to turn things around and put on a match-winning performance.
India XI
1. Smriti Mandhana
2. Pratika Rawal
3. Harleen Deol
4. Harmanpreet Kaur (c)
5. Jemimah Rodrigues
6. Richa Ghosh (wk)
7. Deepti Sharma
8. Amanjot Kaur
9. Sneh Rana
10. Kranti Goud
11. Sree Charani
Australia XI
1. Alyssa Healy (c, wk)
2. Phoebe Litchfield
3. Ellyse Perry
4. Beth Mooney
5. Annabel Sutherland
6. Ash Gardner
7. Tahlia McGrath
8. Sophie Molineux
9. Alana King
10. Kim Garth
11. Megan Schutt
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl
Alyssa Healy was very quick to say they would bowl here, it was clearly a toss they really wanted to win. She cited the dewy conditions as the main reason for the decision.
A reminder that you can email me any thoughts on the game, predictions for the tournament, or particularly compelling conspiracy theories and I will do my best to share them with the OBO family following along around the world. You can find the link at the top of the page.
If you’re keen to catch up on Australia’s last game before this one begins, you can re-live Beth Mooney’s rescue mission here:
I’m hearing from the ground that it’s a beautiful, sunny day in Visakhapatnam, so no fears of a repeat of the Sri Lanka game for the Australians. Sophie Molineux has also been spotted warming up, so it looks like she will come into the match day squad. The toss is imminent, so we’ll have full team lists for you before too long!
Preamble
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Megan Maurice
Hello and welcome to a huge game in this Cricket World Cup! The as-yet undefeated Australia against tournament hosts India – this has been a highly anticipated clash. While both teams probably should have sailed through fairly well unchallenged so far, it hasn’t been the smoothest start for either team.
While Australia haven’t yet lost a game, a washout against Sri Lanka has proved frustrating for their ladder position. They also suffered a fairly serious batting collapse against Pakistan and if it wasn’t for Beth Mooney – ably assisted by Alana King – they may have been dealt a huge upset defeat.
Meanwhile, India were defeated by South Africa on Thursday, bowled out in the final over for 251, took some early wickets to put themselves back in the game and then watched on in despair as as steady 70 from Laura Wolvaardt and a flamboyant 84 from Nadine de Klerk dragged South Africa over the line. It was a tough blow for India, who would have been expecting the win after seeing South Africa all out for 69 against England in their opening match.
So there is a sense of desperation in this match for both teams. Australia will want to put their batting woes behind them and do everything they can to claw back a position at the top of the ladder after their washout. And India will be pushing for a win to reassert their dominance in front of a home crowd.
Speaking of the crowd, it is apparently a sell out today at Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Stadium, so expect some very vocal support when India scores runs or takes a wicket and the kind of silence you didn’t think possible from a crowd of people that large when Australia counters.
It’s sure to be a fascinating match, so let’s get into it!
