CWG 2022: Renuka Singh, Sneh Rana's fiery spells help India restrict Australia to 161/8 in final
Aug 07, 2022
Birmingham [UK], August 7 : Renuka Singh and Sneh Rana's fiery spells helped India to restrict Australia at 161/8 in 20 overs in the historic gold medal match in the Edgbaston Stadium at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Sunday.
For Australia, Beth Mooney scored 61 while Meg Lanning played a knock of 36 runs. For India Renuka Singh and Sneh Rana bagged two wickets each.
Opted to bat first, Australia got off to bad start as Indian pacer Renuka Singh struck early with the ball once again in this all-important gold medal match dismissing opening batter Alyssa Healy for seven runs.
Healy tried to play a shot across the line but could not get any connection on the ball that crashed onto her pads, trapping her leg before the wicket.
It was a positive breakthrough for Harmanpreet Kaur's team as at the end of four overs, the Aussies were at 22/1.
Opener Beth Mooney and skipper Meg Lanning shifted gears and started batting aggressively. The duo kept piling up runs by good running between the wicket in every over.
But Meg Lanning was sent back to the hut as she was run out for 36 at the non-striker's end by Radha Yadav. In the very next over Australia lost another wicket as Tahlia McGrath was dismissed on Deepti Sharma's delivery.
After the 12 over of the innings, new batter Ashleigh Gardner smashed two back-to-back fours in Deepti Sharma's over.
In the 16th over of the innings, Sneh Rana gave her team a big breakthrough as she dismissed Ashleigh Gardner for 25 runs in 15 deliveries.
Mooney in red-hot form hammered Indian bowlers all around the ground and brought up her half-century in the 16th over with a blistering four.
In the 17th over, Renuka dismissed new batter Grace Harris, leaving Australia tottering on 133/5. Deepti Sharma took a one-handed sensational catch of Mooney (61) on the delivery of Sneh Rana.
In the last over of the innings, the lower order of Australia failed to score runs as Deepti Sharma ended the first innings with just conceding five runs in the 20th over to leave Australia's total at 161/8.
Brief score: Australia 161/8 (Beth Mooney 61, Meg Lanning 36; Renuka Singh 2-25) vs India.
