241/9 (96.4)
CR : 2.49
RR : 0.00
Match Drawn
Player of the Match
Smriti Mandhana
127(216) & 31(48)
14.6
0
R Gayakwad to E Perry
A confident stride and a firm block from Perry to this fuller length delivery..
Over 15
Australia Women 36/2
Ellyse Perry1(14)
Meg Lanning17(43)
Rajeshwari Gayakwad0-2(2.0)
Over 15
Australia Women 36/2
Meg Lanning17(43)
Ellyse Perry1(14)
The two are having a chat in the middle. Meg Lanning is asking Mithali Raj, should we shake hands? And they have decided! They do shake hands so the Test ends in a draw...
In the end, a hard-fought contest where both these team pushed each other to the extreme corners will not have a promising end. Rain, thunder-lightning and the hailstorm were the real villains at the Gold Coast. India's first ever Day-Night Test match had it all: a marvellous century from Smriti Mandhana, fighting fifties from Shafali Verma & Deepti Sharma, and quality spells from India's pace trio. One should also not forget Punam Raut aggressive 41 in the second innings, apart from her walk-off in the first innings.
For Australia's point of view, an out-of-form Ellyse Perry found her form back, with both bat and ball. It was the Aussie star allrounder's panache 68* off 208 deliveries that avoided the follow-on for the home team. Perry was consistently losing on partner as Meghna Singh and Jhulan Goswami were in a fiery spell with the second new ball.
Both teams will be happy with their efforts, but India will be the more satisfied team at the end of this game as they were astonishing with the bat and bowled brilliantly in her first outing with the pink ball.
Smriti Mandhana is the Player of the Match.
Smriti Mandhana: Definitely in my top three innings. It was the most nervous night I've ever had, the first day of the Test match. Slightly lucky with that no-ball on 80, that cleared my mindset that now that I've got a chance I've to make it count. As a player it's the topmost thing to wear whites and go out. Today was a different situation as compared to the first day, that only happens in Test cricket. We don't have much time, just three days before the T20Is. I did have a slight hit-out today like a T20. Rest for a day and then try to hit a few shots.
Mithali Raj: Had we got four wickets we might have kept going. But overall the team played really well. Jhulan has always been our best bowler for so many years and we got to see why she was the best. She shared her experience and young seamers Pooja Vastrakar and Meghna Singh were given opportunity alongside Jhulan so that they learn a lot. Smriti has been very impressive. I was impressed by Yastika Bhatia and Richa Ghosh too in the one-dayers. I'm sure Harmanpreet (who is injured) will take the field in the T20s.
Meg Lanning: Without the weather we would have got a result in four days. We certainly came to win as did India. India played really well and put us on the back foot, we had to fight it out. They ran in hard and gave it their all. We fielded every day in this Test.
Right then, that's the end of this Day-Night Test Match. Now this series will move to the T20Is, starting from the 7th. But you all keep a tab on our coverage of the Indian Premier League.
This is me, Arjun Bhalla, signing off on the behalf of my comm-mates - Anurag Dasgupta and Akshay Bhide.
This is me, Arjun Bhalla, signing off on the behalf of my comm-mates - Anurag Dasgupta and Akshay Bhide.