Mumbai: Seamer Pooja Vastrakar and off-spinner Sneh Rana showed enough craft to exploit a pitch offering variable bounce to bundle out Australia for a modest 219 in their first innings on the opening day of the one-off Test here Thursday.
In their first essay, India raced to 98 for 1 at stumps as openers Smriti Mandhana (43 not out, 49 balls, 8×4) and Shafali Verma (40, 59 balls, 8×4) added 90 runs.
But India’s march to ascendancy began through Vastrakar (4/53) who teamed up with Sneh Rana (3/56) and Deepti Sharma (2/45) to snap Aussies innings in 77.4 overs despite an even fifty by Tahlia McGrath.
However, Australia made a poor start as they lost opener Phoebe Litchfield in the first over itself after a mix-up with her partner Beth Mooney at the Wankhede Stadium.
Four deliveries later, Vastrakar produced a jaffa to remove Ellyse Perry (4) and reduced Australia to 7/2 inside the first two overs.
Vastrakar beat the defence of star all-rounder Perry by getting the ball move into her to disturb the stumps.
But McGrath (50 off 56 balls, 8x4s) came out firing on all cylinders to put pressure back on India, making most of the errors in line and in the field.
McGrath was severe on anything that had width, racing to her third fifty in five Tests with eight fours while also utilising two lifelines in the form of dropped catches when she was on 24 and 45.
While making the bulk of runs during her 80-run stand with Mooney for the second wicket, McGrath also set herself up for a big score. But an error in judgement made her pay heavily, and it also opened the floodgates.
Having got her runs fluently up until then, the Australian vice-captain chipped Rana straight to Rajeshwari Gayakwad at midwicket who timed her jump well to collect the ball over her head.
Mooney (40) batted well despite her struggles early on against spin and pace to get close to a half-century, but Vastrakar surprised the left-hander with a sharp bouncer that shot off the surface.
The resultant edge lobbed towards Rana at first slip after deflecting off the gloves of Yastika Bhatia.
Having lost a chunk of batting to reach 103/4 at lunch, both Alyssa Healy (38) and Annabel Sutherland (16) showed impressive footwork during their 40-run association which ended abruptly.
Australia skipper Healy could not do much when a delivery from Deepti kept very low to crash onto her stumps, after which Vastrakar pinned Sutherland in front of the wicket for her third scalp.
Ashleigh Gardner (11) was Vastrakar’s fourth victim as she meekly played one outside the off stump to be caught behind. But Australia’s tail produced a good fightback to take them past 200.
A stubborn 30-run association between Jess Jonassen (19) and Kim Garth (28 not out) did frustrate India, who were made to work hard for the breakthrough on either side of the tea break.
Jonassen and Garth took their time collecting runs as their partnership came off 93 balls, while Lauren Cheatle (6) also hung around to ensure Australia put a reasonable total on the board.
But when India batted, there were no such struggles.
Mandhana and Verma were also assisted by the waywardness of Australian bowlers, who dished out a lot of deliveries ripened either to drive, cut or pull as the Indians plundered their runs at nearly six an over.
Their alliance ended when Jonassen trapped Verma in front of the wicket but by then India had shaved off Australia’s lead to a good extent.
PTI
