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Australia v India: women’s Test, day two – as it happened

This article is more than 2 years old
  • India reach 276-5 before lightning again puts a stop to the day
  • Smriti Mandhana scores her first Test century
 Updated 
Fri 1 Oct 2021 06.54 EDTFirst published on Thu 30 Sep 2021 23.33 EDT
Lightning is seen during a rain delay on day two of the Women's International Test match between Australia and India.
Lightning is seen during a rain delay on day two of the Women's International Test match between Australia and India. Photograph: Matt Roberts/Getty Images
Lightning is seen during a rain delay on day two of the Women's International Test match between Australia and India. Photograph: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

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Megan Maurice
Megan Maurice

Well, what can we say about that day of play? India definitely had the momentum at the start and we saw that wonderful century from Smriti Mandhana. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what she can do with the Sydney Thunder this season!

Australia gained a bit of ascendancy back later in the day - Ellyse Perry finally got the wicket she was chasing and Annabel Sutherland created something from nothing with the big run out of captain Mithali Raj. We had the fascinating case of Punam Raut walking after nicking to Alyssa Healy behind, despite the umpire giving her not out.

Australia will be disappointed that the rain has washed out the day, as they were really gaining momentum, but equally India had the chance to pile on some runs and declare and really put themselves in the box seat to take the win. So no one will be happy about this terrible Queensland weather (from experience, Queenslanders take it very well when you disparage their weather, they’re notoriously good humoured about it).

I will be back at 1:30pm tomorrow to take you into the start of the day’s play and hopefully will have no more rain fill to do and can just tell you all about some great cricket! See you then.

Well there we have it, no more play today - it will resume at 2pm tomorrow.

Unfortunately, there will be no more play today.

We're back at 2pm again tomorrow #AUSvIND

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) October 1, 2021

Still no official updates on the rain situation despite the promise of an assessment of conditions at 8:30pm and the broadcasters are still showing us sunny highlights from the third ODI. Please tweet if you’d like me to live blog that game instead and we’ll all pretend we don’t know what happens in it.

Well while we’re waiting for some live cricket, please let me take you back to my favourite Test moment. The year is 2011. It’s before the multi-format series, so the entire Ashes comes down to this one Test. England just have to get a draw to retain it. They bat first, do a good job, Australia fall apart. Then something magical happens - they declare behind. There’s a spark in the game. Rene Farrell comes on to bowl. And the rest is history.

The latest update from the ground is that lightning is still persisting in the area and conditions will be assessed again at 8:30pm, so in about 25 mins. I’ll keep you updated!

Ah, here’s some optimism right on cue from our friend Bharat Sundaresan at the ground. Apparently the stadium’s famous draining capabilities are living up to the hype and there’s still a chance of play tonight.

Still some rain around & the odd bolt of lightning. But must admit that the Metricon Stadium seems to have a miraculous drainage system. This is how dry the playing area looks like now #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/gnILsIxmaG

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) October 1, 2021

Still seeing plenty of this around the ground I hear and the broadcasters have diverted to showing a replay, which is never a great sign. If we have any Queenslanders around that can send me a bit of your trademark optimism to share, that would be much appreciated.

Lightning is seen during a rain delay on day two of the Women’s International Test match between Australia and India. Photograph: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Alyssa Healy is chatting on Fox Cricket now and the rain still seems to be coming down behind her and the Australian team is apparently mid-card game, so that 7:30 resumption seems very optimistic. But hope remains for getting back out at some point tonight.

Tea will be taken from 7:10-7:30pm with the hope that play will resume after that. So sit tight and get yourself some tea, or perhaps something stronger on a Friday night, and hopefully all those Queenslanders know what they’re on about and we’ll see some cricket soon.

Update: Tea will be taken from 7:10pm - 7:30pm.

Play will resume when possible! https://t.co/ryyEQdgieM

— Australian Women's Cricket Team 🏏 (@AusWomenCricket) October 1, 2021

I’m hearing the Queenslanders around the ground remain confident this will blow over, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I suppose we have to defer to them as the experts and as someone who witnessed an MBBL final and a T20 World Cup semi-final at the SCG that were both played in what appeared to be impossible rain circumstances in early 2020, I have to accept that there’s always a chance!

It’s been an interesting little period of play. India are approaching it very cautiously, they don’t appear to want to lose any more wickets. But it really seems like they should be instead focusing on pushing up their run rate and getting Australia out there batting under lights and take some quick wickets. A win in the Test would be huge for India in the context of the series - it would be disappointing to finish this with a draw. The bad weather reduces the likelihood of a result, but some aggressive batting from India could turn things around and give them a shot at a win.

Rain delay

There’s some lightning in the vicinity, so everyone’s heading off the field. Hopefully it will be a quicker storm than last night’s one!

101st over: India 275-6 (Bhatia 0, Sharma 12) Molineux again and Sharma plays a neat little shot to leg gully to get off strike on the second ball of the over. Bhatia doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get off the mark, she’s playing very safe and defensively to the length Molineux is bowling.

100th over: India 275-5 (Bhatia 0, Sharma 11) McGrath resumes and the ball is starting to move a bit under the lights. A misfield from Sutherland at the start of the over gives India an easy run and McGrath follows up with a ball that doesn’t leave much room for a misfield, not allowing Bhatia to get bat on it. She started her line a little wide, but straightens it up through the over and Bhatia is content to defend.

Megan Maurice
Megan Maurice

99th over: India 274-5 (Bhatia 0, Sharma 10) Well hello and thanks Jonathan for taking us through the start of a fascinating day’s play. Mithali Raj’s wicket came right out of the blue and will provide a bit of spark to the Australians. Molineux is bowling this over and Lanning calls Sutherland over to get under the lid. It’s a maiden from the spinner.

Jonathan Howcroft
Jonathan Howcroft

And with that, I’ll hand you over to Megan Maurice. She will take you through to the remainder of play. Thanks for your company.

WICKET! Raj run out (Sutherland) 30 (India 274-5)

Catastrophe for India. Raj has run herself out. She dabbed Molineux to midwicket and set off for the run but realised quickly Sutherland was going to make her life hard. She aborted the sprint and attempted to turn and reclaim her ground, but she slipped, Sutherland hit the stumps direct and Raj has to trudge off. Disastrous way to go.

98th over: India 274-4 (Raj 30, Sharma 10) The lights are now in full effect at Metricon Stadium and the pinkness of the ball is in exaggerated effect. There’s still very little movement in the air or off the seam for McGrath though as she sends down an uneventful maiden.

Meanwhile on the rain radar, there is now just a narrow strip of land that has yet to be consumed by the blanket of storms coming through. That strip includes Metricon Stadium, for now.

97th over: India 274-4 (Raj 30, Sharma 10) Perry’s spell of seven overs 1/16 comes to an end, replaced by Sophie Molineux. But the left-arm spinner begins with an absolute rank half-tracker that is helped to the fine-leg fence by Sharma. It’s the same line, but slightly fuller next up, and SHARMA IS DROPPED down the legside by Healy. Tough chance, but that one glanced off the bat in and out of Healy’s gloves.

96th over: India 269-4 (Raj 30, Sharma 5) McGrath settles into a full and straight line and length to Sharma, with a hint of swing into the left-hander, but this new ball is not misbehaving under lights as much as Australia might have expected.

95th over: India 267-4 (Raj 29, Sharma 4) Perry is into the seventh over of her spell. It seems like she’s really committed to bowling herself into form in this session. It might be one over too much though. Her length is too short in the main, then she offers Sharma a full toss to square drive to the point boundary and get off the mark.

#SEQld severe storm warning update: storms moving east towards #SunshineCoast and #GoldCoast. Damaging winds and large hail likely. Check the radar and latest warning details: https://t.co/FBmpsInT9o pic.twitter.com/XKcOk2ggBR

— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) October 1, 2021

94th over: India 263-4 (Raj 29, Sharma 0) McGrath replaces Brown, but her line is all over the place. Raj collects a couple behind square-leg.

93rd over: India 261-4 (Raj 27, Sharma 0) Deepti Sharma is out in the middle, the last of India’s frontline batters. The left-right combination remains intact.

WICKET! Bhatia c Mooney b Perry 19 (India 261-4)

After Raj gets an easy single to rotate the strike, Perry settles in outside Bhatia’s off-stump. The line changes to leg-stump, but Bhatia can’t time the ball away for runs, instead finding a huge leading edge that skews all the way to Mooney in the gully, who takes a superb low catch to make amends for her earlier error. Australia, and Perry in particular, have pushed hard for that dismissal since the break, and they have their reward. A huge relief for Perry after her tribulations.

Beth Mooney holds on to a great diving catch, and Ellyse Perry has her first wicket! #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/tCtfPlbfje

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) October 1, 2021
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92nd over: India 260-3 (Raj 26, Bhatia 19) Consecutive play-and-misses outside off stump from Bhatia, wafting her bat away from her body to Brown angling the ball across her body. Brown then loses her line and both batters work singles before a couple of wild deliveries well outside off, only one of which is assigned an extra. I reckon that might be Brown’s lot for a while.

Still we wait for the rain.

91st over: India 257-3 (Raj 25, Bhatia 18) Perry’s over is delayed while Mithali Raj is attended to by the Indian physio. She’s received a couple of blows to the inside of her left thigh and needs some attention. Replays indicate the latest of those blows was actually a very good shout for LBW. It was only a half-hearted appeal on-field but it would have been Umpire’s Call if DRS was involved. Perhaps rattled, Raj gets an outside edge but it lands short of slip.

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