Bolton, Jonassen star as Australia go 2-0 up

Australia Women first put up a big total on the board, courtesy half-centuries from Nicole Bolton, Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney, and then added to the pressure on India Women with a clinical bowling performance to run out 60-run victors in the second ICC Women’s Championship one-day international in Vadodara on Thursday.

Already 1-0 down after the eight-wicket loss in the first game, India got a boost before the second fixture as Mithali Raj, who was unwell, returned to the Indian XI. That, however, didn’t affect Bolton one bit as she continued from where she had left off in the first game to hit 84. Perry scored 70* and Mooney 56 as Australia finished their 50 overs on 287/3. Then, with Jess Jonassen (3/51) leading the way, Australia bowled India out for 227 in the final over of the chase.

The Indian reply started on a good note, with Smriti Mandhana smashing it early on. Her opening partner Punam Raut was perhaps a bit too quiet, and was on just 4 by the end of 10 overs.

By then, Mandhana had stroked her way to 40 in 32 balls to ensure the scoring rate was fine. She continued her aggressive innings, and got past the half-century with a glance off Nicola Carey, but couldn’t carry on for too much longer as Jonassen got her to miscue a slog sweep to short fine leg where Megan Schutt took the catch. Mandhana fell for 67 in 53 balls, with 12 fours and a six.

Raut had still only reached 20 at that stage, and moved to 27 before her 61-ball innings came to an end, caught off Ashleigh Gardener by Amanda-Jade Wellington at mid-off.

That left India at 99/2, and though Deepti Sharma (26) and Mithali Raj (15) looked good for a while, India were behind the asking rate and the pressure was starting to tell. And then wickets started falling. From 123/2 in the 25th over, India slipped to 170/7 by the end of the 36th, as Wellington (2/20) and Jonassen ran riot, leaving the tail-enders with a lot to do.

Pooja Vastrakar, fresh off a half-century from No.9 in the previous game, showed it was not a fluke and might have made a case for a promotion in the batting order with a counter-attacking 30 in 33 balls, with two fours and a six. But India were always well behind the eight-ball, and were bowled out with four balls left in their innings.

Earlier, after being asked to bat, Australia got another superb start from Bolton, who followed up her 100* from the first ODI with a stroke-filled 88-ball 84. She was quite the dominant partner in her opening-wicket stand of 54 with Alyssa Healy, who fell for 19 after sending Poonam Yadav to Veda Krishnamurthy at long-off in the 13th over.

It wasn’t the first solid partnership Australia had, as Meg Lanning joined Bolton and added 76 for the second wicket, contributing 23 even as Bolton sped past her half-century and looked good for one more century. It wasn’t to be, though, as Ekta Bisht, the veteran left-arm spinner, beat the sweep in the 30th over to send Bolton back; her innings included 12 boundaries.

Lanning had fallen a short while before that, caught at the cover boundary off Shikha Pandey, and Rachael Haynes was bowled by Harmanpreet Kaur for a duck. That reduced Australia to 144/4, and with just under 20 overs to go, it looked even.

But that’s when Australia got their next big stand, with Perry, who was sedate to start with, and Mooney, all big hits, getting together. Perry waited for the loose balls, while Mooney was more inventive with her strokeplay, and it started to go away from India bit by bit as the two found the fence often enough to mess with the Indian fielding plans.

Mooney got past her half-century when she made room for herself and hit Bisht over the covers for four, but the partnership ended at 96 when she was out caught and bowled by Pandey trying to drive the bowler – it was a sharp catch from Pandey, with the ball coming to her at speed, and Mooney was gone for a 40-ball 56, with nine fours.

At that stage, in the 45th over, Perry was on 48 from 56 balls, and she upped her scoring even as wickets fell around her. All of Gardner (6), Carey (16), Jonassen (1) and Wellington (0) were dismissed, but Perry got enough of the strike to get to a run-a-ball 70 not out, hitting two sixes to go with six fours.

From among India’s bowlers, Pandey was the most successful with 3/61, while Yadav picked up 2/52.

The final match of the series will be played on Sunday at the same venue.