India A-Australia A Women’s Series: Minnu shines again but hosts extend lead

Gold Coast, August 23

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Skipper Minnu Mani completed her match haul of 10 wickets as the India A bowlers led a spirited fightback but Australia A tightened their grip on the one-off women’s four-day game, with the hosts’ overall lead surging to 192 runs on the second day.

Kate Peterson returned figures of 5/16 to hand Australia a slender 28-run lead in the first innings, as the visitors were bowled out for 184 in reply to the host’s 212.

Resuming at 100/2, India A looked on course to take a substantial lead but fell short as Peterson ran through the middle order.

India’s set batters Tejal Hasabnis (32) and Shweta Sehrawat (40) were the first to fall as the tourists lost five wickets for 27 runs before Sayali Satghare (21), Minnu (17) and Mannat Kashyap (19) put up 56 runs to deny Australia a huge lead.

Minnu then swung into action with the ball immediately as the Australia A batters once again struggled against Indian spinners.

The off-spinner first removed opener Georgia Voll and her Australian counterpart Charli Knott for ducks in consecutive overs to reduce the hosts to 0/2 at one stage.

Minnu, who claimed a five-wicket haul in the first essay, also got rid of Nicole Faltum (16) before she cleaned up Tess Fintoo with an off-break.

However, opener Emma de Broughe continued to hold fort from one end as she scored 58 runs off 117 balls before falling prey to rookie leg-spinner Priya Mishra.

Wicketkeeper Maddy Drake took matters into her own hands by hitting an unbeaten half century (54 not out of 100 deliveries) to lead Australia’s recovery further as the hosts reached 164/7 at the end of play.

Drake added 54 for the sixth wicket with Maitlan Brown (26 off 45) before the latter became Minnu’s 10th wicket in the game.

Brief scores: Australia A: 212 & 164/7 (de Broughe 58, Darke 54*; Minnu 5/47); India A: 184 (Shweta 40, Tejal 32; Peterson 5/16).

ICC planning multi-million dollar fund to save Test cricket

Sydney: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is mulling a dedicated fund of at least $15 million for Test cricket that will help increase the players’ match fee and address the migration of talent to lucrative T20 franchise leagues. The initiative, which was proposed by Cricket Australia, has the support of BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who is the frontrunner to become the next ICC chairman, and the England and Wales Cricket Board, a report stated. The fund would increase the minimum match payment for Test players and cover the cost of sending teams on overseas tours. It would support national boards like the West Indies that currently struggle to compete with the wages offered in global T20 competitions. “The fund would ensure a minimum Test payment for all players, thought to be $10,000, and pay the costs of overseas tours for struggling countries,” the report stated.