Spinners Minnu, Priya wreck Australia Women as India A in command

GOLD COAST: Spinners Minnu Mani and Priya Mishra shared nine wickets between them as India A bundled out Australia A for a paltry 212 to gain upper hand on the first day of the four-day one-off women’s ‘unofficial’ Test here on Thursday.

Skipper and off-spinner Minnu (5/58) and rookie leg-spinner Priya (4/58) put the Australian batting unit in a tailspin as it lost all the 10 wickets to the visiting slow bowlers.

India A reached a strong 100 for two at stumps and it trails by 112 runs.

The Australian batters struggled against Indian spinners and it was a continuation from the third ODI last week when Priya troubled it with a five-wicket haul at Mackay.

Opener Georgia Voll (71, 95 balls, 12x4) was fluent during her stay but she fell to left-arm spinner Mannat Kashyap as the Australians slumped to 94 for four.

It required a stiff resistance from their late order batters Maitlan Brown (30, 49b, 2x4) and Grace Parsons (35, 55b, 3x4) for the host to go past the 200-run mark.

India lost Priya Punia (7) very early in its innings to get reduced to 13 for one, and later Shubha Satheesh also departed without contributing much.

At 47 for two, India needed a steadying partnership and Shweta Sehrawat (40 batting, 109b, 3x4) provided that in the company of Tejal Hasabnis (31 batting, 64b, 2x4).

The third wicket pair has so far added 53 runs and they will be looking to take India closer to the Australian total on the second day.

Brief Scores: Australia A: 212 all out in 65.5 overs (Georgia Voll 71; Minnu Mani 5/58, Priya Mishra 4/58) vs India A: 100/2 in 36 overs (Shweta Sehrawat 40 batting, Tejal Hasabnis 31 batting)