After back-to-back failures in the first three matches, star Indian batter Smriti Mandhana finally got his form back in the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup during the ongoing match against defending champions Australia Women at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The opening batter scored 80(66) as India Women were bowled out for 330 runs in 48.5 overs.
Coming to bat first after losing the toss, India got a flying as Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal put up an opening stand of 155 runs in 24.3 overs. Mandhana got out scoring 80 runs off 66 balls hitting nine fours and three sixes. This was an important knock for Mandhana after registering scored of 8, 23, 23 in the first three matches in the World Cup respectively. With this knock, the 29-year-old
also became the first Women’s cricket to score more than 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year. Apart from that, Mandhana also became the youngest and the fastest batter to amass 5000 runs in the Women’s ODIs.
Pratika Rawal shines with 75-run knock, Annabel Sutherland takes a fifer
After Smriti Mandhana’s dismissal, Pratika Rawal took charge of the innings as the 25-year-old got out after a well-made 75 runs off 96 balls hitting 10 fours and a six. After that, Harleen Deol and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur added 42 runs for the third wicket. Kaur got out after scoring 22(17) runs with three boundaries while Harleen contributed with 38 runs off 42 balls hitting three fours and one six.
While India Women were 240/4, Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh added another 54 runs before the fall of the fifth wicket. Richa scored 32 runs off 22 balls hitting three fours and two sixes while Rodrigues contributed with a quickfire 33(21) runs hitting five boundaries. However, the Australian bowlers made a good comeback in the end as they didn't let India play full 50 overs as they were boiwled out for 330 runs with seven balls remaining. Annabel Sutherland turned out to be a star performer with her figures of 5/40. Now, Australia Women need 331 runs to win the match,
