Beth Mooney out of Ashes with broken jaw; Huge setback to Australia
Mooney was hit by a ball under the grill of her helmet during training and will undergo immediate surgery, according to Cricket Australia.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Australia women have set a daunting target to the Indian team as they scored 184/4 in 20 overs. The Indian bowlers did not have enough answers in front of the Australia batswomen.
Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney were women on purpose at the final stage on Sunday and looked set right from the word go. While Healy scored 75 off just 39 deliveries, including 7 fours and 5 sixes, Mooney also contributed with a handsome half-century ( an unbeaten 78 off 54 deliveries) and once Healy departed (dismissed by Poonam Yadav) after ensuing that the Australia post 115 runs for the first wicket, it was Mooney who did not let the momentum slow down.
It was not until the 17th over when Deepti Sharma picked up 2 wickets within the span of 4 balls that India had something substantial to cheer about. India did not had a good day in the field in general as they dropped catches of both the openers in the powerplay itself. While Shafali Varma dropped Healy early on in the innings, that was soon followed by Rajeshwari Gayakwad dropping Mooney. Both the batswomen pounced on to the chance given to them and scored big.
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That was not all, as there were plenty of misfields and lapses in the field that also cost India some invaluable runs.
None of the Indian bowlers bowled at under 7 runs an over, In fact, star Indian bowler Poonam Yadav also gave away 30 runs in her quota of 4 overs picking up a wicket only in her last over Rachael Haynes.
Other than Poonam, Deepti Sharma produced a spell of 2 for 38, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad went wicketless giving away 52 and 29 runs respectively. Radha Yadav also managed just 1 wicket for 34 runs.
While India did manage to make amends in the later stages of the first innings, they would now be looking to take the momentum into their second innings and pull off their highest-successful run chase ever.
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