Mooney, McGrath hold victorious Australians together

Australia’s series victory over India was achieved in much the same manner as their win in the final Twenty20 on the Gold Coast – through the hard graft of Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath after some of the team’s biggest names had quiet nights.

Having given up four early wickets, the Australians were lifted to 5-149 primarily by Mooney and McGrath. This was a sizeable enough score to allow Meg Lanning’s bowlers to squeeze India into a 14-run defeat to round off the series result, 11 points to five.

Beth Mooney, celebrating after her great escape in the second ODI, was the difference for Australia.Credit:Getty Images

While the quality of Mooney(61 from 43 balls) has never been in question, the emergence of McGrath (44 in 31 balls) as a major contributor in the middle order, including in the T20 format she had never previously played for Australia, helped cover the deficiencies of others.

Several of Australia’s most vaunted batters found themselves unable to dictate terms to India for most of the series, not least because of the amount of swing and seam on offer in Queensland. In that respect, their travails resembled those of many a southern states batter venturing north for early season Sheffield Shield games down the years. Mooney, of course, is a local.

Shikha Pandey’s nip-backer from hell to account for Alyssa Healy in game two of the T20 matches on Saturday night was the standout example of a wider trend.

None of Lanning (143 runs at 28.6 across the multi-format series), Healy (155 at 22.14), Ellyse Perry (107 runs at 26.75 including two unbeaten innings in the Test match) or Ash Gardner (132 runs at 26.4) had personal series to remember with the bat.

Their slack was picked up largely by the super-consistent Mooney (287 runs at 57.4), while McGrath’s 235 runs at 78.33 staked a claim for a place in a crowded lineup. This will need consideration even after Megan Schutt and Jess Jonassen return to international duty in time for the Ashes series early in 2022, after the WBBL.

As a bowling unit, the Australians handled their absences well enough, with the exception of the critical first session of the Test match, where Schutt’s land-it-on-a-sixpence accuracy would have been very helpful in imposing pressure.

India’s overall performance was admirable given the hard 14-day hotel quarantine they faced on arrival in Australia, as distinct from the many concessions being granted to the England men’s team for the Ashes.

Sent in by Harmanpreet Kaur, the Australians were again troubled by Pandey’s lateral movement with the new ball, although this time she went unrewarded.

Instead, Healy fell to Renuka Singh, caught on the juggle by Richa Ghosh up to the stumps, before Lanning was unusually out hit wicket when cutting from so far back in the crease as to hit the stumps with her bat.

Gardner touched a well-pitched outswinger from Pooja Vastrakar, and when Perry picked out long on, the hosts were a sickly 4-73 in the 12th over. A recovery was required, and as so often in this series it was Mooney and McGrath to provide it.

Their stand of 44 in 37 balls put Australia in competitive territory, and some late blows from Georgia Wareham helped McGrath get India’s target up to 150. In all, the final six overs of the innings tallied a pivotal 60 runs for Australia.

India’s chase, spearheaded by their leading scorer Smriti Mandhana (352 at 50.29 for the series), showed initial promise before petering out.

As has been the case throughout the series, the spin of Gardner and Sophie Molineux was instrumental in corralling the run rate and forcing errors from their opposition.

Add the leg spin of Wareham, and their collective tally of 24 wickets for the series made for something like the bowling equivalent of Mooney and McGrath, next to the more heralded reputations of the pace bowling brigade now led by the speedy Tayla Vlaeminck.

All of Australia’s players and a significant portion of India’s now adjourn to Tasmania for the WBBL.

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