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Australia grabbed the final three wickets and bowled
India out for 406 on Saturday morning, a lead of 187 for the home team. It only
took 36 minutes. The tourists had their work cut out for them; if they wanted
to avoid losing by three days, they had to put in a lot of effort. Pitch
irregularities were a steady source of fascination for the spinners and caution
for the hitters.
Beth Mooney got off to a great start, hitting four
straight fours, but an inattentive walk lost her a wicket. Before a poorly
placed reverse sweep caused Phoebe Litchfield to stumble, she managed to evade
a pair and appeared stable. And then, with Australia in rough seas, strode
Tahlia McGrath to keep Ellyse Perry company.
McGrath’s tenure as Australia’s permanent vice captain
begins with this series. Since she fields at mid-on or mid-off, she had
determined that her role as Alyssa Healy’s deputy would be to assist the
bowlers, freeing Healy to concentrate on laying the fields and taking wickets.
Despite the visitors being bowled out for 219, McGrath played well with the
bat, scoring a brisk 50 in the opening innings, the fastest fifty in
Australia’s women’s Test history.
But Friday put her to the test. She allowed a few of
Smriti Mandhana off-drives to go through her legs on consecutive balls, and she
mostly gave the impression that she was not paying attention to the bowling
discussions. But as the day went on, she started contributing her ideas. As in
the 66th over, when Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues were hitting off.
McGrath knew she would have to take her time with the
bat in order to acquire a feel for the surface’s pace. She struck just one off
her 24th ball in the second inning, as opposed to a barrage of fours in the
first. She appeared uneasy when facing spin at first, frequently using forceful
hand defences and losing ground. She was content to work things out though. Her
first four was a hard cut, and her second was an undercut off a drifter by
Rajeshwari Gayakwad.
McGrath only used the sweep when the ball was on the
pads, while Perry did not utilise it—a shot that helped Rodrigues and Ghosh win
on the second day. She enjoyed playing with the spin and getting more runs.
McGrath patiently waited for Gayakwad to bowl well on either side of lunch, and
all four of her four fours off her came through the off side (with the spin).
Perry continued to smash a 119-ball half-century,
becoming the first visitor hitter to score one in each innings of a Test match
in India, albeit falling short of her target. Eventually, a Harmanpreet Kaur
offspinner took her inside edge and uprooted the stump of her leg, ending her
resilient vigil.
By that point, she had given Australia the lead with
73 runs and two and a half times the amount of runs batted than in the first
innings.
The characterization of McGrath as the “next
Ellyse Perry” since her debut has done a “huge disservice to
TMac,” according to Perry.
Australia effectively ended the day at 46 for 5. It’s
anybody’s guess what a safe total to defend could be, with the track worsening
steadily. However, McGrath’s unwavering innings and her two partnerships with
Perry and Healy made sure Australia stood their own and prevented a recurrence
of the events that befell England in Navi Mumbai last week.