Jess and Amelia Kerr bowl India out for 227

October 24, 2024
7:42 pm

44.3 overs India 227 (Hasabnis 42, Deepti 41, Amelia Kerr 4-42, Jess Kerr 3-49) vs New Zealand

Fresh from a maiden Women’s T20 World Cup win, New Zealand’s spinners combined to pick up seven of the ten wickets to bowl India out for 227 in the first women’s ODI in Ahmedabad.

Amelia Kerr, the Player of the Tournament in UAE, returned four wickets for 42 runs while offspinners Eden Carson and Suzie Bates also struck blows to the India batters, who could not stitch long partnerships.

India were without their regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur, and Smriti Mandhana, leading in an ODI for the first time, fell cheaply after opting to bat. Shafali Verma looked to bring a gear that we hardly saw at the T20 World Cup, particularly targeting Jess Kerr. She used the pull shot to good effect and then dispatched a length ball over the sightscreen. But she pulled Carson’s first ball straight to square leg to fall cheaply.

A couple of 20-something partnerships followed – first between Yastika Bhatia and Dayalan Hemalatha, who batted at No. 4 in Harmanpreet’s absence, and then between Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues. It was only when Rodrigues combined with Maharashtra middle-order batter Tejal Hasabnis, who was on debut, that there came a sense of stability in the Indian batting.

The pair looked particularly at ease against spin, maneuvering the ball in the outfield to keep the scorecard ticking. Hasabnis showed her prowess against spin specifically when she went deep in the crease against Amelia’s legspin to slice it past backward point. The pair increased the pace as they went along in their 61-run partnership of just 70 balls.

But Rodrigues missed a clip off Bates and was adjudged lbw, the review returning an umpire’s call on impact. Then on 42, Hasabnis could not resist charging at a tossed up delivery from Amelia and was stumped. Deepti Sharma and Arundhati Reddy kept things afloat with their 37 off 47 but 250 looked a distant destination for India.

Deepti showed a lot of intent from the moment she walked in at No. 7. She hit a couple of fours and a six in her stay and was the last batter dismissed for 41, her best score in ODIs since September 2022. When she missed the sweep to be bowled, it did seem as if India had left a few runs on a surface where the ball was not misbehaving and strokeplay was not too difficult.