Key events
Geoff Lemon
Australia go top of the table. India are in third, but they can’t afford to lose another one. Their remaining games are against New Zealand, England, and Bangladesh, and if they drop one there then New Zealand could jump them, especially if they lose to the Kiwis.
That’s it from us. South Africa play Bangladesh tomorrow.
That’s an extraordinary effort from Australia. The biggest winning run chase ever in women’s ODIs, the second-biggest score ever made batting second, and Healy with the second-biggest individual score in a run chase. She was the difference, with her ability to produce not just the flying start that she often has at her best, but to carry on with it and build it into an innings of substance, taking Australia past 250 by the time she fell.
Then it was down to Ellyse Perry, who retired hurt but came back to use her calm and experience and ice the chase. Gardner and Litchfield contributed important runs when called upon. But a lot of the credit also has to go to Annabel Sutherland with the ball, because at 294 for 4 with seven overs to go, India might have been on for 380 rather than 330. Instead she removed both Ghosh and Rodrigues, then came back to wrap up the tail and deny India even batting through their 50th over.
For India, Kranti Guad and Amanjot got belted early, but came back later creditably. Charani was excellent, and Deepti held her own. Rana was expensive today, and India’s lack of a sixth option hurt them, although that sixth option might just as well have been belted too.
Australia win by three wickets with six balls to spare
It was a close one, but Perry finishes it.
49th over: Australia 331-7 (Perry 47, Garth 14) So, Garth on strike. Rana to bowl spin. This is make or break. Garth can’t score first ball, walks at Rana and drives it back into the ground. And then from nowhere, pulls out the reverse sweep! Not much width but just enough, very fine for four. Then jams a single off her pads.
Perry walks down and smokes the ball straight, but only one run to long on. Garth takes another off her legs. Last ball of the over… Perry walks at the bowler and smokes the ball for six! Dead straight, middled. Decides not to risk the chaos of a 50th over, and instead treat that last ball as a free hit.
48th over: Australia 318-7 (Perry 40, Garth 8) First ball of the over, Garth pulls one run. Doing her job. Perry can’t score next ball, driving into the off side, then settles for a run down the ground. Three runs from the over, Amanjot is doing her job superbly. It has tightened up to 13 needed from two overs.
47th over: Australia 315-7 (Perry 39, Garth 7) Not sure how smart this is from Australia. Perry takes a single first ball of the over. But Garth allays any doubts, reaching for width and carving it behind point for four. Kranti Gaud the bowler. Then should have been run out at the non-striker’s end, but Rodrigues misses the throw from midwicket. Australia get the rushed the single. Perry can’t score off the yorker. Last ball… full toss! Flicked into the midwicket gap, and as two fielders converge, Radha Yadav dives past the ball and can’t get it out of the rope. Two errors from India on the one ball, costly.
46th over: Australia 305-7 (Perry 34, Garth 1) Australia send out Kim Garth rather than Alana King, who batted so well the other night. Not sure why. Garth can bat a long time, but they need strike rotating from the get-go. It doesn’t happen here. Only two from the over.
26 runs need from 24 balls.
WICKET! Molineux lbw Amanjot 18, Australia 303-7
Pinned in front! Molineux walks. Perry chases her and tells her to review. The angle from around the wicket was very sharp to the left-hander, but she was so far back on her stumps that it didn’t make a difference. Hits her in front of off stump after keeping low as she tries to pull.
45th over: Australia 303-6 (Molineux 18, Perry 33) We start the over with Australia needing 32 to win. Perry is back in the middle, moving fine. And her hamstring, if that is the problem, gets a test as she sweeps to short fine, Deepti stops the ball, and Molineux is already running from the non-striker’s end. Perry is ball-watching and hesitates. Then she really has to sprint for it, and the ball hits her as she runs. Deepti appeals for obstructing the field, but the umpires brush that off. Perry wasn’t looking at the ball when it was thrown, and only shifted her line to get off the pitch. Another great bit of fielding at cover stops a shot, denying Molineux four, then a scrambling save at short third by Kranti Gaud saves three.
28 needed from 30.
WICKET! Gardner b Amanjot 45, Australia 299-6
44th over: Australia 299-6 (Molineux 16) So, Charani and Deepti are bowled out. Kranti Gaud and Rana have two overs each. And there are potentially six overs to go after this one from Amanjot. It’s not working, though, for India. A hint of width, Molineux is a left-hander, so her cut flies fine, past the short third fielder in the circle, for four. But from the last ball of the over, she gets through Gardner! I think I heard an Indian player starting to appeal after that ball hit Gardner’s pad. It was off the inside edge. But that doesn’t matter when the second ricochet then goes back onto the stumps. Just straight and length and missed, mostly, angled in at the batter.
43rd over: Australia 292-5 (Gardner 44, Molineux 10) Gardner has been quiet for a while. She’s happy to coast through Deepti’s last over and look for the runs elsewhere. Four singles. Perry is padded up on the bench and smiling.
42nd over: Australia 288-5 (Gardner 42, Molineux 8) Amanjot has been expensive today, but India are short on options with eight overs to go. So Molineux joins the boundary party with a pull shot for four, just beating the chase, after cutting for two when Charani was able to stop it on the rope.
41st over: Australia 280-5 (Gardner 41, Molineux 1) So. That over started with a dropped catch from Gardner at point, Charani too slow to move towards a looping outside edge and dropping it as she slid. But it does produce the wicket of McGrath, after she belted her third boundary sweeping. Molineux comes to the middle, but Perry is warming up on the boundary line in case she needs to return. Another 51 runs required, it ain’t nothing.
WICKET! McGrath lbw Deepti 12, Australia 279-5
Great review from Deepti! She was convinced, and her captain took no convincing that it was time to roll the dice. Umpire thinks this ball has hit outside the line, but it has turned enough to sneak just inside the line. And is going on to hit the leg stump, after a big stride forward from McGrath. Another twist.
40th over: Australia 274-4 (Gardner 40, McGrath 8) Early attack from McGrath, walking at Kranti Gaud and baseballing her down the ground for four. Then bangs one over cover, and Amanjot looks to have it covered but it beats her dive in the end. The perfect fast start for McGrath to make sure she doesn’t slow the innings down.
39th over: Australia 265-4 (Gardner 39, McGrath 0) Interesting that after the TV producer said they only had two angles on that catch, they produce a replay from a third angle after the decision has been made. The view is partly obscured but it might have added to the story. Probably supporting the decision that was made. End of the over. Tahlia McGrath with some ground to make up after getting belted with the ball earlier.
WICKET! Healy c Rana b Charani 142, Australia 265-4
India look like they’ve given this up. Very flat body language, Ahmedabad 2023 vibes. They still have six an over to defend, it’s not nothing. Shree Charani errs on the leg stump, and Gardner plays a swivel-sweep fine for four. And then finally, finally, the moment comes. Healy plays a slashing square drive. Sneh Rana at point gets under it with her fingertips, and plucks it up.
There’ll be some discussion about that call, I’m sure. “I’ve got ball on the ground there,” was the third ump’s first comment, as the ball looks to dip after hitting Rana’s hands. Later the umpire says “I see fingers underneath it.”
There is a sharp downward movement that makes it look like the ball hits the ground. Personally I reckon that Rana does have her fingertips under it, and then scoops it up from there. But it could easily be given the other way on another day.
38th over: Australia 258-3 (Healy 141, Gardner 33) Slog sweep from Healy… just over Mandhana’s head! She’s there at deep backward square, she thinks she’s in the game, jumping, ponytail flying, but the ball sails over. Sneh Rana goes wider outside off, but Healy is still able to pick up the next ball over midwicket, one bounce skimming off the grass into the gap there for four.
Healy currently has the 15th highest score in a Women’s World Cup, going up the rankings quickly.
37th over: Australia 245-3 (Healy 131, Gardner 31) Finally some runs come from Charani, into her ninth over. Healy hasn’t played a reverse yet, I don’t think. Litchfield did, to her detriment, and Perry did, with memorable uniqueness. Healy now goes that way, and the ball bounces unexpectedly, but her eye is sufficiently adjusted that she’s still able to collar it from outside off stump through deep third for four. After that she lines up Radha Yadav, substituting at short cover, and nearly takes her out with a cut shot that bounces in front of the fielder.
Five off the over. They need 6 and a half. Harmanpreet has her thundercloud face back on, the same as when Nadine de Klerk was going nuts the other night.
36th over: Australia 240-3 (Healy 127, Gardner 31) Healy just keeps finding that boundary! So often it’s one per over, and it’s the same again here: advancing at Rana, a lofted clip off the pads, straight of the deep midwicket, into that pocket again where it finds the sponge. This is the most controlled innings I’ve ever seen her play.
35th over: Australia 233-3 (Healy 122, Gardner 30) Down leg from Deepti, and Gardner can tickle it fine. Then Gardner makes another bad ball hard for herself: charges at a full toss, which would have been juicy had she stayed still, but in the end it’s too high for her to hit with any power on the move. Down to long on for one.
34th over: Australia 226-3 (Healy 121, Gardner 24) Double seam, Amanjot returns to complement Kranti. Gardner pulls a couple, then cuts four! There’s a sweeper there for the shot but she hits it so far in front of point, really through extra cover in the end, and has the muscle to get past Kranti sliding on her belly across the turf. Seven from the over, which is what Australia need, with a single, then Amanjot bowls a wide. So that’s eight runs, and Healy gets another ball, that she pulls for four. Slower ball, sits up, hit behind square.
Make that a dozen from the over. Healy has the highest score at this World Cup. Currently 30th at all women’s World Cups.
33rd over: Australia 214-3 (Healy 117, Gardner 17) Kranti Gaud returns. India need her to rally after being whacked earlier, and she does… for five balls. Gets a bit lucky to be honest, a couple of pull shots belted but at fielders, thus only scoring one. But the last of the over does not have that fortune, as Healy finds the gap at straight midwicket for four. The bowler has been pulled far too often today, by a player who has that as one of her favourite shots.
32nd over: Australia 205-3 (Healy 111, Gardner 14) Shree Charani is keeping India in this. 8 overs, 2 for 29 so far, as she gets through another over conceding three runs. Every time Australia have a big over, they get pegged back to follow.
Century! Alyssa Healy 100 from 84 balls
31st over: Australia 202-3 (Healy 110, Gardner 12) Healy is playing an absolute blinder! Reaches her hundred against Sneh Rana, first kneeling to swat a sweep shot through midwicket for four, then driving the single for her century. Her first in ODIs as captain.
Not content with that, she gets the strike back, does the grapevine down the wicket, hits a clean cover drive over the field for four, then ends the over with a smashed wristy step-hit over deep midwicket for six. The snap of her wrists was so pure there, all that power as she flicks the bat across her front pad and deposits this.
That’s 16 from the over, meaning the required rate is 6.79 from here and the current rate is just below that. Drinks.
30th over: Australia 186-3 (Healy 95, Gardner 11) Wheeeew, and Gardner opens that pressure valve slightly. Charani bowled a good over, until the end of it. There’s not much flight on the final ball, but enough time for Gardner to shuffle out of her ground and hit a clean swing straight down the ground for six.
29th over: Australia 176-3 (Healy 93, Gardner 3) The screw tightens one more quarter-turn. Two runs from Deepti’s over, Gardner not game to try anything yet, Healy cautious when she comes onto strike.
28th over: Australia 174-3 (Healy 92, Gardner 2) Even more riding on Healy now, who has to keep the score going, not get distracted by her hundred, and allow Gardner time to settle as a vitally dangerous ball-striker. They need Gardner deep into this innings, they can’t afford to have her get out now. Four singles after the wicket, and the required rate is suddenly up at 7.1.
WICKET! Sutherland b Charani 0, Australia 170-3
Bowled! Up the order, down the pipe. Sutherland walks at Shree Charani, gets lost, and doesn’t have a map to get back. The left-arm ortho spins the ball across the batter, whose poke in the direction of mid on is nowhere near the line of the ball, while her feet are nowhere near the pitch of it. It spins past her and into the top of her middle stump.
27th over: Australia 170-2 (Healy 90, Sutherland 0) Quite the over. Sutherland gets off strike with an extra run after a fumbled wide, then Healy doesn’t score from Deepti’s last three balls. A wicket in the chase almost always slows things down.
WICKET! Mooney c Rodrigues b Deepti 4, Australia 168-2
Well well well! India didn’t get Perry’s wicket, but Perry’s retirement has brought them Mooney’s wicket. Australia’s most important batter is gone. The left-hander gets a ball from over the wicket, right arm. Tries to make room and go over cover, or through cover, but ends up halfway between the two: catchable height, but it still takes anticipation and a dive from Rodrigues to cling onto a stunner. Great fielding.
26th over: Australia 168-1 (Healy 90, Mooney 4) Misfield at point allows Mooney a single. Harmanpreet the captain won’t be happy, because she’s also Harmanpreet the bowler. Using herself as the sixth option, most likely to give some flexibility to not bowl Kranti Gaud as much at the back end. But it doesn’t go much better than some of the seam bowler’s overs, as Healy works the pockets: one shot punched into the midwicket gap, the other over cover from a line wide of off stump. Two fours, 10 from the over, and the required rate of 6.8 an over is marginally ahead of the current rate. Still a lot of work to do.
25th over: Australia 157-1 (Healy 81, Mooney 2) So India get the advantage of having a new batter starting an innings, despite not taking a wicket. Beth Mooney takes four balls to get off the mark, meaning that Deepti’s over only costs three singles.
Perry comes off injured
This is big news. That last ball of the over, Perry stepped into a drive and took a single, but it looked like her spikes jammed in the pitch when she put her front foot down, and that somehow caused a muscle twinge. Calf or hamstring, not sure? She speaks to the physio, then the umpire. Looks like this is precautionary more than essential, but she’s decided to come off and let Mooney replace her, though Perry can come back at the fall of a wicket if she wants.
24th over: Australia 154-1 (Healy 80, Perry 32) Charani keeps the lid on things, though Australia pick up a few singles and a leg bye to at least get something from the over.
23rd over: Australia 149-1 (Healy 78, Perry 30) Healy makes up some ground after that last over. Lovely timing on the standing paddle sweep to send away a ball outside her heel, four through fine leg, then plays another of those swatting pull shots to whack Deepti over midwicket to the fence. Her score is mounting, and this too after 49 overs of wicketkeeping and captaincy in the heat.
22nd over: Australia 141-1 (Healy 70, Perry 30) Got to tie Perry down to force a mistake, tie Perry down to make Healy twitchy. India can send that required rate northwards quickly with some quiet overs and a wicket. Charani takes the first step, bowling a maiden to Perry, who finds the field several times.
21st over: Australia 141-1 (Healy 70, Perry 30) They keep finding at least one boundary in most overs. Third time today, Rana is smacked from her sixth ball. This time it’s Healy and a sweep shot doing the damage. The run rate is about level with the required rate at 6.5 right now.
20th over: Australia 132-1 (Healy 64, Perry 27) Lovely shot from Perry, square drive behind point for four! Splits the fielders to take more runs from Kranti Gaud, who is 0 for 45 from six overs.
19th over: Australia 125-1 (Healy 63, Perry 21) Sneh Rana to continue. The reverse got Litchfield out, but Perry gets away with it, using an unorthodox method. She’s deliberately reversed that with the back of the bat. Shapes to go down to sweep, sees the line, decides to reverse, but doesn’t try to rotate the bat face around, just goes with the other side instead and gets it away for four. Healy finds another boundary too, her option being a cut through cover. Rana going at a run a ball from four overs.
18th over: Australia 116-1 (Healy 59, Perry 16) Kranti Gaud comes back to bowl with an older ball, having been belted by Healy with the newer one. She’s still bowling on the short side, but only gives up five singles to a series of pull shots, mostly.
17th over: Australia 111-1 (Healy 57, Perry 13) Almost a run out! Clipped to midwicket, Perry is wanting to sprint from the non-striker’s end, Healy sends her back. Hits the reverse thrusters, gets moving in the other direction, and like a cat in the morning, it takes a big stretch for Perry to make her ground. Just. That wakes her up, and when she gets strike she lofts a drive inside-out over cover from Deepti for four.
