Bolton, Jonassen star as Australia seal ODI series

Australia continued their dominance with a comprehensive 60-run victory against Indian women to seal the three-match One-day International (ODI) series by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead here on Thursday.

After cruising to an eight-wicket victory in the opening ICC Women's Championship game, India were outplayed in all departments as Australia scored a healthy 287/9 and then bowled out Mithali Raj's girls for 227 in 49.2 overs.

On Thursday, India got a boost as Mithali, who was unwell, returned to the Indian XI. That, however, didn't affect opener Nicole Bolton one bit as she continued from where she had left off in the first game to hit 84.

Ellyse Perry (70 not out) and Beth Mooney (56) also contributed heavily to lift Australia to a strong total before Jess Jonassen (3/51) led the bowlers to bundle the visitors out for 227 in the final over of the chase.

The Indian reply started on a good note, with Smriti Mandhana smashing it early on. Her opening partner Punam Raut was perhaps a bit too quiet, and was on just 4 by the end of 10 overs.

By then, Mandhana had stroked her way to 40 in 32 balls to ensure the scoring rate was fine. She continued her aggressive innings, and got past the half-century with a glance off Nicola Carey, but couldn't carry on for too much longer as Jonassen got her to miscue a slog sweep to short fine leg where Megan Schutt took the catch. Mandhana fell for 67 in 53 balls, with 12 fours and a six.

Raut had still only reached 20 at that stage, and moved to 27 before her 61-ball innings came to an end, caught off Ashleigh Gardener by Amanda-Jade Wellington at mid-off.

That left India at 99/2, and though Deepti Sharma (26) and Mithali Raj (15) looked good for a while, India were behind the asking rate and the pressure was starting to tell.

And then wickets started falling. From 123/2 in the 25th over, India slipped to 170/7 by the end of the 36th, as Wellington (2/20) and Jonassen ran riot, leaving the tail-enders with a lot to do.

Pooja Vastrakar, fresh off a half-century from No.9 in the previous game, showed it was not a fluke and might have made a case for a promotion in the batting order with a counter-attacking 30 in 33 balls, with two fours and a six.

But India were always well behind the required rate, and were bowled out with four balls left in their innings.

The final match of the series will be played on Sunday at the same venue.

--IANS

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