Brisbane, Aug 21 Fast bowler Georgia Prestwidge’s early burst put Australia A on top, but heavy rain and persistent interruptions meant early stumps was taken on Day One of their one-off red-ball match against India A at the Allan Border Field here on Thursday.
It was a day on which rain had a major say in the proceedings as only 23.2 overs of play was possible on the opening day of what is the final match of the ongoing multi-format series. Electing to bowl in overcast conditions, Australia A were immediately on top, thanks to Georgia Prestwidge dismissing Nandini Kashyap and Dhara Gujjar for ducks on consecutive deliveries in the second over.
Georgia’s first wicket came via a delivery that breached Nandini’s defence and castled her through the gate, while she had Dhara reaching out to a wide delivery and nicking to first slip.
Georgia then arguably produced her best delivery of the day to castle Shafali Verma, who had threatened to take the attack back to the bowlers with a fluent 38-ball 35, including eight boundaries.
Fellow pacers Sianna Ginger and Maitlan Brown then took out Tejal Hasabnis and Tanushree Sarkar for nine and 13 respectively as India A slipped to 93/5 before rain forced the players to go off the field.
Despite several warm-ups between showers, play could not resume for the remainder of the day. All hopes for India A putting up a competitive total rest on Raghvi Bist and captain Radha Yadav, who are unbeaten on 26 and eight respectively.
Previously, Australia A had completed a 3-0 clean sweep of the T20 series, before the India A side bounced back by winning the 50-over series 2-1.
Brief scores:
India A 93/5 in 23.2 overs (Shafali Verma 35, Raghvi Bist 26 not out; Georgia Prestwidge 3-25, Sianna Ginger 1-25) against Australia A
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