Gold Coast (Australia): An imperious Smriti Mandhana's unbeaten half-century helped India reach 132 for 1, before rain brought an early stump on the first day of their one-off pink ball Day/night Test against Australia, here on Thursday.
The left-hand opening batter was batting on 80 when the play was called off for the day. She hammered 15 boundaries in her 144 balls stint. Punam Raut at the other end was batting on 16 off 57 balls and stitched an unbroken 39 runs partnership for the second wicket.
The rain delays were almost from the second session. A minimum of 87 overs were to be bowled on the day.
Put into bat by Australian captain Meg Lanning at Metricon Stadium, the flamboyant Mandhana and teenager Shafali Verma stitched a 93-run opening wicket stand, even though the ball was moving about a bit.
Mandhana raced to her half-century off 51 deliveries as she took the Australian bowlers to cleaners. She was particularly severe on debutant Darcie Brown.
In one of her overs, the Indian opener belted four boundaries, taking 16 runs.
Shafali on the other end was scratchy throughout her 64-ball stay at the crease. She got a life early on when Captain Lanning dropped a sitter off Ellyse Perry.
Shafali got another life as she tried to power Sophie Molineux over mid-off, but Annabel Sutherland made a hash of it.
She also survived for the third time as an edge of Molineux raced between the keeper and the first slip.
Molineux had the last laugh against Shafali, who sliced one to Tahila McGrath at mid-off after making 31 off 64 balls.
Australia have fielded four debutants - Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Brown and Stella Campbell. And India have fielded two debutants - Yastika Bhatia and Meghna Singh. (UNI)
