Nothing beats a Test win. And the hunger the Indian women’s cricket team showed to beat Australia, was exceptional, to say the least. After four days of grueling cricket, the Indian team got the better of Australia at the Wankhede Stadium by eight wickets, securing their first-ever win over them in the longest format, and their second in as many weeks.
With the way India had performed against England, this performance doesn’t come as a surprise at all. While Pooja Vastrakar emerged as the star again, it was more of a combined effort by the entire team, that chipped in with valuable contributions. Jemimah Rodrigues, who scored 73 in the first innings, could not contain her excitement and said, ‘Christmas has come early’.
Speaking right after the win, she said, “I always wanted to play Test cricket. Nothing like winning two Tests back-to-back. Christmas has come early. I had set a few goals, and one of them was to be consistent. I kept working hard, didn’t think too much about results, I had to be consistent with my process.”
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On the other hand, Smriti Mandhana, who also had a fifty in the first innings, went on to say, that the pitch was not that difficult to bat on. “It wasn’t that tough. We thought it was going to be a rank-turner on days three and four, but if you showed patience, it wasn’t that hard. I told Shafali to bat as we batted in the first innings. Just react to the ball, that was the only message we had. She was unfortunate, but she started off beautifully with that cover drive.”
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