India Women beat Aussies by 8 wkts to create test history , Rana gets player of the match

 

India has defeated Australia for the first time ever  in women's test cricket.  India has won the only test match played against Australia in Mumbai.  This is India's first win against Australia in the 12 Tests played so far.

 When it comes to cricket, the  Indian women are certainly no less.  And, on 24 December 2023, they proved this by defeating the Australian women's team for the first time on the Test cricket pitch.  The entire Indian cricket fans were waiting for this moment for 46 years.    Indian women's cricket team has won the only test played against Australia in Mumbai by 8 wickets.  India has achieved this historic success under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur.

The process of playing Test cricket between the women's cricket teams of India and Australia has been going on since 1977.  However, there have not been that many test matches between the two countries.  From 1977 till now i.e. in 46 years, only 12 Tests have been played between the women's teams of the two countries, in which India has got no victory.  Earlier, out of 11 Tests played, Australia women's team had won 4 while 7 Tests were drawn.

 On the last day of the Mumbai Test, Australia's second innings was reduced to 261 runs.  The tourists  could add only 28 runs to their score on the third day and lost 5 wickets. Gardner was lbw to Vastrakar early and then the spinners got into the act as wickets tumbled one after another.  Sutherland (27) resisted for a long time before she was caught behind off Rana and the rest followed soon . 

  In this way, the Indian women's team got an easy target of 75 runs to win.  Indian women achieved the target of this historic victory by losing 2 wickets. Shafali Verma (5) was caught behind cheaply off Garth and Richa (13) was dismissed by Gardner .   Smriti Mandhana, who was run out after scoring 74 runs in the first innings, remained unbeaten after scoring 38 runs in the second innings. She played some lovely shots and was not out at the end along with Jemima (12*) 

 As a captain, this victory over Australia in Test cricket is a historic success for Harmanpreet Kaur.  Before this no other Indian woman captain had achieved this success.  Harmanpreet's team proved  that they are also capable of defeating Australia in the test.  Apart from Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma also made an important contribution in this success of the team.  Apart from them, the contribution of Sneh Rana and Pooja Vastrakar with the ball was commendable. Pooja showed great all round skills taking 5 wickets and scoring 47 runs . Rana took 7 wickets and got the player of the match award .