India A Women and Australia A Women meet in Mohali for the one-day series decider

India A Women and Australia A Women meet in Mohali on Friday with the one-day series level at 1-1 and a single match left to settle it

The third and final unofficial ODI begins at 2pm IST at the I.S. Bindra Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, the ground that has staged the whole 50-over leg of Australia A Women’s tour of India.

India A took the opener on 20 September by four wickets. Australia A levelled three days later by chasing 339 with three balls to spare, the highest successful chase of the tour.

Australia A have already won the T20 leg 3-0, so Friday decides whether India A take anything from the white-ball half of the series.

A chase that changed the series

India A made 338 for 6 in the second match and still lost. Australia A answered with 341 for 8 in 49.3 overs, the winning runs coming in the final over.

Charli Knott hit 63 from 37 balls and Anika Learoyd 54 from 29, the pair scoring at better than a run a ball through the middle overs.

Tahlia Wilson’s 79 from 77 balls held one end, and Hayley Silver-Holmes added 47 as the target came down. Tess Flintoff made 38 and Milly Illingworth finished 22 not out from 14 balls.

Both games have gone to the side batting second

In the opener India A bowled Australia A out for 235 in 46.3 overs, then chased 236 with nearly nine overs unused, closing at 239 for 6.

That chase had wobbled to 46 for 3 before Tejal Hasabnis and Anushka Sharma put on 126 for the fourth wicket.

Rachel Trenaman and Tahlia Wilson had opened with 81 for Australia A that morning, but Vaishnavi Sharma took 3-40 and Amandeep Kaur two as the innings folded.

Three days later Australia A did the same thing from the other side, so neither team has yet defended a total in this series. The toss carries more weight than usual on Friday.

Where India A’s runs have come from

Yastika Bhatia made 112 from 84 balls in the second match, with 16 fours and two sixes.

Hasabnis has 141 runs in the series at an average of 70.50 — 81 from 82 balls in the opening chase, with six sixes, and 60 from 66 in the defeat that followed.

Anushka Sharma has passed fifty in both matches, finishing 60 not out in Mohali on 23 September after 55 in the first game. Priya Punia’s 36 from 32 balls and Tanisha Singh’s 37 were the next-best contributions of the second innings.

Where India A have leaked runs

Niki Prasad leads the series bowling with five wickets at 14.20, her 3-28 breaking Australia A open in the first match.

In the second, Minnu Mani was the only India A bowler to hold an end, returning 3-48 from her ten overs. Sayali Satghare conceded 69 and Vaishnavi Sharma 73.

Australia A’s attack has been led by Darcie Brown, whose 3-39 from eight overs was the best return of the second match, and by Tess Flintoff and Frankie Nicklin, who took two apiece in the first.

A four-day match to follow in Mohali

The tour closes with a four-day match from 29 September to 2 October, which will now also be played at Mohali rather than the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala.

The BCCI said in a media advisory that the switch "has been necessitated due to the impact of prolonged rainfall in Dharamshala on the outfield and the prevailing ground conditions."

That leaves Australia A’s entire one-day and multi-day programme in Punjab, on a ground both sides now know well.

Play starts at 2pm IST, with the one-day leg of the tour resting on the result.

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