India vs Australia | Nicole Bolton century leads Australia to easy victory in first ODI

ByDivya Sahu, SportsCafe Editor

03/12/2018

Nicole Bolton scored a century in the opener of the ODI series between India and Australia women’s cricket team which helped the visitors to take a 1-0 lead after winning the game by 8 wickets. Earlier, it was Australian spinners, who attacked the Indian batting line up to restrict them to just 200.

The first match of the three-match ODI series was played in Vadodara where Indian women team won the toss and elected to bat first. But the move soon backfired as the first wicket, in the form of Smriti Mandhana, went down at the score of 38 as the talented Indian star could add just 12 runs to the total. The fall of wicket continued at regular intervals and India’s collapsed to 87/5 at the midway point of their innings. Somehow, India managed to touch the 200-run mark thanks to Sushma Verma who played a 41-run knock and Pooja Vastrakar who scored her first ODI half-century in the second match of her career. Both Indian women cricketers built a partnership of 76 runs for the eighth wicket before the team all-out at 200. For the Australians, it was left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen who took four wickets while conceding 30 runs in 10 overs. Leggie Amanda-Jade Wellington grabbed three wickets while Megan Schutt and Ashleigh Gardner got one Indian scalp each.

Chasing 201 runs in 50 overs was an easy target for the visitors and thanks to their opener Bolton who played unbeaten 100-run knock facing 101 deliveries, it proved to be just that. During her tremendous innings, she produced 12 boundaries which anchored team’s position in the early stage of the game. Her opening partner Alyssa Healy made 38 and captain Meg Lanning 33 before being run out. The experienced Ellyse Perry, who played 95 ODIs for Australia, scored unbeaten 25 runs and hit the winning four.

The next match of the series will be played on March 15 at Reliance Stadium in Vadodara.