Rachael Haynes scored a sparkling unbeaten 93 as Australia Women defeated India Women by 9 wickets in the first one international at Mackay on Tuesday.
After being asked to bat first by hosts, the visitors opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Varma got their side off to a solid start. The duo added 31 runs for the opening wicket before Darcie Brown removed both openers back to the pavilion end.
Debutant Yastika Bhatia along with skipper Mithali Raj anchored the innings with a 77 run stand for the third wicket before the former departed for 35.
Deepti Sharma fell cheaply as she top edged a Brown delivery to Wareham at square leg.
Skipper Mithali Raj and Pooja Pooja Vastrakar put on 37 runs for the fifth wicket before the former was stumped by left arm spinner Sophie Molineux for 63. Her knock came off 107 balls with three fours.
Richa Ghosh and veteran fast bowler Jhulan Goswami scored some handy runs in the end to take their side to a competitive score of 225/8 at the end of their allotted 50 overs.
Darcie Brown was Australia Women’s best bowler with figures of 4/33, while Sophie Molineux and Hannah Darlington claimed 2 wickets each.
Chasing 226, Rachael Haynes and Alyssa Healy got their team off to a fantastic start. The pair added 126 runs for the opening wicket before the former was caught at mid off by Vastrakar off Poonam Yadav for a well made 77.
Haynes (93)* along with skipper Meg Lanning (53)* added an unbeaten 101 run stand for the second wicket as Australia Women reached the target of 227 with 9 overs to spare.
Darcie Brown was declared the Player of the Match. The second ODI will be played on September 24, Friday