India (W) vs AUS Women, 1st ODI at Mumbai, IND v AUS (W), Dec 28 2023 - Match Result

There's the Australia we know. They stood tall against a confident Indian team and take a 1-0 lead after a tough loss in the Test. The teams meet again in a couple of days again: same time, same place. See you then. For now, it's goodbye from me, Ekanth, my report-writing co-commentator, Srinidhi Ramanujam, and our scorers, Harshith Gowda and Binoy George.

You can read the match report here

Phoebe Litchfield, POTM: This award was special, all three I have in ODIs are pretty special. Early on, Pez played her own game, struck down the wicket really well. I was slow but that's partnership batting going with the ebbs and flows. When we brought up our fifties, that was our best. Pitch played well to be fair. Didn't spin as much as I thought. I need to work the game a bit better: scoring off more balls, take on the game a bit more and not getting out on 80 laughs

Alyssa Healy, Australia captain: Sometimes you just gotta get out the way and let the good players do their thing. laughs Dew came in late in the game but I thought we could've been tighter in the last ten while bowling. Batting approach was sensational, that was the blueprint we want to put out there. Our batters play down the ground really well, helps when the ball is skidding on a little bit. Girls bounced back and showed how we wanted to play.

Harmanpreet Kaur, India captain: We managed to get a defendable total. Bowlers did their job but fielding didn't work well. After a while dew was there, but bowlers did well to keep stumps in play. But I was unhappy with our fielding, Australia were amazing saving runs. Pooja was great. We need to back ourselves and play aggressive cricket.

Ellyse Perry: Awesome fun to bat out with Phoebe. We talked about putting up a big partnership after not doing it in the Test. Nice to see the girls finish the way they did. Conditions were nice today, game's come along a long way. We've been pushed by India, so we gotta raise the bar. I thought 280 was around, had a good effort in the field and bowled well for a large part. With the lights coming on and ball coming on, the bowlers had a low margin for error with the field restrictions. We started positively and capitalised. We never let the grip loose which was pleasing. We had Christmas which was a lot of fun and a couple of days off, different for some of us. Cool to have a big contingent of 50-odd people, which was a nice, new experience. Switch between formats was nice too. Our energy in the field matched with the bowling.

sanket : "The way Aus women has chased down such a huge target without much of fus will pose some serious questions in Indian dug out. Indian women batted brilliantly with their different approach of playing aggresive cricket but even that didn't helped them to challenge this formidable Aus unit. It will be interesting to se how Harmanpreet and co can come out of this loss"

8:39pm A clinic from Ellyse Perry with Phoebe Litchfield allowed the visitors to clinch it without breaking a sweat. Perry was deliberate in her strokeplay and intent to go for boundaries when the ball was in her zone. For a while, the whole pitch seemed like her zone. It allowed Litchfield, who was slow at the start, to pick up pace. She broke free with three fours in the 17th over and the duo kept scuttling thereafter. Both of them finished with 70s and India might've seen an opening but Tahlia McGrath ensured that didn't happen with a seamless, free-flowing 68*, with able support from Mooney. India's spinners couldn't hit their straps and the fielding was a letdown. Vastrakar shone with an accurate spell but it came very late in the piece.

Final over of the game?

Meanwhile, South Africa have pumped India in the men's Test at Centurion by an innings and 32 runs

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