IND-W vs AUS-W

What a delightful couple of weeks this has been for Indian women's cricket! The girls have managed to win back-to-back Test matches against England and Australia, respectively, when not too many people gave them too much of a chance. Some terrific individual performances at just the right times and more importantly, playing together as a well-knit side handed India these two magnificent wins in the purest format of the game! All we can say is that these girls deserve more and more cricket in whites going forward, both at home and away. Now, the action moves into the one-day international leg of the tour with the first game taking place on the 28th of December at the Wankhede Stadium. Do join us for that as another pulsating series awaits us between India and Australia! This is the pair of Arya and Bidipto taking your leave. Keep following Sportskeeda! 

Harmanpreet Kaur (India Women captain): I think that it is a reward for all the hard work that we have done over the years. The patience that we have shown to improve as a team, has been amazing! We have been playing together for many years now, so, that definitely helps. We put Richa Ghosh up the order to let her play positive cricket and keep the pressure applied on them. Australia batted well in the second innings, but still, we showed the trust in our bowlers and the contributions came in handy. Our bowling coach keeps telling our bowlers to think only wickets, not contain runs. That has come good. We are thankful to the BCCI for giving us the opportunity to play Test cricket in back-to-back weeks. We are happy for the selections made as well and of course, it helps immensely when the crowd supports us like this! We are hopeful of the women's game improving by leaps and bounds in India. 

Sneh Rana has been adjudged the Player of the Match! Here is what she has to say.

Sneh Rana: It feels amazing to win this game and get this award, standing here! (On whether she came in up the order in the final sessions of both the Test matches of late as a night-watchman) (answered with a smile) Well, no one called me a night-watchman, and I think I didn't let anyone feel like that with my batting either! I always look forward to the challenges, and definitely look to rise to the occasion to overcome those challenges. I'm always a comeback person, so, even if catches are dropped of my bowling, I look to motivate the fielders in question and come back stronger. Test match cricket is huge, so, the vibe for the players has been brilliant! I'm sure the more we play in this format, the better women's cricket will get in our country. 

Alyssa Healy (Australia Women captain): It was an amazing experience of playing Test match cricket here! It's certainly not easy to win in these conditions, but, barring the first day, we have been good. Just that we had to play catch up after that. It's our first game here in red-ball cricket, so, would like to play more in India and make things more interesting. We would have loved to score 300 in the first innings, that I think would have kept us more in the game. The girls have really enjoyed their time in these last four days, hope to get things going in the white-ball leg straightaway! 

Smriti Mandhana: Well I think, it wasn't that tough. When we saw the surface, it looked like a rank turner but batting wasn't as hard. The first innings when Deepti and Pooja got the partnership, for me that won us the game. I told Shafali that we would bat as we batted in the first innings, nothing fancy just playing according to the merit or the ball. She was unfortunate to get out after getting underway with a boundary.

Jemimah Rodrigues: I always wanted to play Test cricket. Wear these white is a dream and winning two Tests and scoring a couple of half-centuries, Christmas has come early. I think even before the domestic season started, I had given myself goals and I wanted to be more consistent. The process was being consistent and the result always follows. This time I have had a lot of scores backing me and it paid off. Yeah I think, they have inspired me a lot. I am a Mumbai girl and expected to contribute a bit more.

Pooja Vastrakar: I am very happy after creating history. Really happy with the performance. I have tried very hard in batting but just wanted them to play all day long. Didn't wanted to bowl.

Renuka Singh Thakur: She asked me to keep patience so that was the only thing she was telling me. Keep patience and the wickets will follow. Can't disclose the celebration plans. That's a secret (chuckles).

India Women win the Test match by 8 wickets! By doing so, they win their first ever Test against Australia Women. 

Smriti Mandhana - 74 (106) and 38* (61) | Sneh Rana - 3/56 (22.4) and 4/63 (22)
Tahlia McGrath - 50 (56) and 73 (177) | Ashleigh Gardner - 4/100 (41) and 1/18 (9)

This has been a supremely good effort from India to clinch a Test victory against arguably the best team in the world! All they needed in what was the final session of the match, was 46 runs. And it took them only 9.4 overs to get the job done! 

Richa Ghosh was the only wicket to fall for India but by then, the hard work had been done. Jemimah Rodrigues walked out, batted for 15 deliveries, scored a couple of boundaries and ended not out on 12. 

But, it was the calm and composed Smriti Mandhana who stayed there right from the start to the end, and took the team to the finish line! She remained not out on 38, scoring 6 boundaries in the process. Quite befittingly, she was the one hitting the winning runs, that too with a boundary! 

Australia bowled 11.4 overs of spin but did not introduce leg-spinner Alana King into the attack! Also, there were 7 overs of seam bowled on a surface that assisted turn, with only 74 runs in the bank! 

The overall game-plan from the visitors left a lot to be desired and they were outplayed in all three departments, actually! Captaincy too, did not quite match up to the standards of the predecessors. 

India therefore, win back-to-back Test matches against two different teams, supposedly against stronger oppositions as well, in back-to-back weeks! This particular one though, was hard fought and hence, sweeter! 

18.4 Jess Jonassen to Smriti Mandhana, FOUR! India creates history winning by 8 wickets. Their first Test win against Australia. Mandhana comes down the track and launches the tossed-up delivery down the ground, the third umpire is checking for the boundary. It doesn't really matter though. 

18.2 Jess Jonassen to Jemimah Rodrigues, knocks away the good-length delivery around middle, down towards the midwicket region for a single. Just 4 more needed. 

18.1 Jess Jonassen to Jemimah Rodrigues, slowish on a length a tad outside off, punched away from the cue end of the bat, back to the bowler. 

Only one hit away now, are India from creating history! This will be their first win over Australia in Test match cricket. They have been just superb in both the matches in whites this month! 

17.6 Ashleigh Gardner to Jemimah Rodrigues, fuller around the middle stump, Jemimah gets down on one knee and sweeps it away towards the deep square leg region for a single.