2006 it was. Shafali Verma was two years old…
Well, it’s not the story about her, growing up but that’s the number of years India and Australia had to wait, to play a Test against each other. Also, today, that two-year-old kid walked in to open the innings for the team along with Smriti Mandhana.
Lisa Sthalekar, who rattled India in that Test, was at the commentary box and was brilliant as usual.
While things changed in years, Mithali Raj and her luck with the toss remained the same.
Meg Lanning handed Mithali Raj’s 99th international toss loss today as India was asked to bat first.
The Test saw six debutants with Yastika Bhatia and Meghna Singh debuting for India while Darcie Brown, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Stella Campbell debuting for Australia.
The Test began with Ellyse Perry searching for perfect length after a disheartening performance in the ODIs. She couldn’t control her line and length once again as India had a flying start.
Shafali Verma did struggle a bit, was dropped a couple of times, scored four boundaries and went for 31. With the 93-run partnership she had with Smriti Mandhana, it was the latter who played the dominant role.
After being shadowed by her young partner all these while, Mandhana turned things around this time. Her cover drives were classy as usual and the pull shot took the front seat too.
It took the rain to stop her. Australian bowlers tried their best but it looked like she was set for big knock. The first rain interruption came after the dinner. Right after that, Smriti Mandhana came back to hit a six telling the world that the break didn’t affect her or the momentum.
As she continued to dominate, the climate were the saviour for Australia today. The day ended earlier than one would’ve wanted. India found themselves at 132 for 1 from 44.1 overs. Punam Raut was Mandhana’s partner and she had 16 from 57.
