Australia 371 for 8 (Perry 105, Voll 101, Litchfield 60, Mooney 56, Thakor 3-62) beat India 249 (Ghosh 54, Mani 46*, Sutherland 4-39) by 122 runs
India will rue a ragged performance with the ball and in the field as their dreams of a first series victory over Australia in Australia in ODIs ended in familiar disappointment.
Her belligerent hitting was on full display, clubbing 12 fours in total, and she combined in a 130-run opening partnership with fellow 21-year-old Phoebe Litchfield, who scored 60 off 63 balls. While Australia’s young stars provided another glimpse of the future, Perry wound back the clock with stunning power-hitting as she became the fourth women’s player from her country to pass 4000 ODI runs.
Perry put the finishing touches with 105 off 75 balls, marked by an Australian record of six sixes, while Beth Mooney scored 56 of 44.
Australia captain Tahlia McGrath resisted the temptation to bowl first and their batters had to front up in potentially tricky early conditions with the match starting at 9.45am local time.
India’s new-ball bowlers Renuka Singh, who hustled Australia in game one with three wickets, and Saima Thakor hoped to conjure swing and make early breakthroughs before the peak heat of the day. But they bowled too full and runs flowed when Litchfield smashed a four on the second delivery before Voll took over with four fours in six balls to get Australia off to a flier.
Litchfield did have a slice of luck on 5 after mis-hitting Thakor to mid-on only for Punia to spill a chance diving forward. It proved costly as Harmanpreet turned to the spin of Deepti Sharma and Priya Mishra within the powerplay but to no avail.
Voll’s maturity continued to impress as she used her feet superbly against the spinners but made sure she didn’t overhit. Her driving was also a feature as she reached her half-century in 43 balls.
Litchfield had been largely overshadowed before igniting her innings with well-executed reverse sweeps to roll to a 58-ball 50. They were totally untroubled until Voll was deceived on 64 by a superb googly from Mishra, who impressed late in game one, and given out lbw before successfully reviewing with ball-tracking suggesting it would miss leg stump.
India were finally rewarded in the next over when Litchfield hit Thakor straight to cover, but the respite was fleeting with Perry in an aggressive mood as she unfurled her trademark lofted drive to devastating effect. Voll cruised towards a century with her only scare being on 86 when she was almost run out by a direct hit from Mani after attempting a quick single, but grounded her bat in the nick of time.
It wasn’t long before Voll flicked Mani to the leg side to bring up her century as she calmly raised her bat and helmet with her proud mother beaming amid the applause in the terraces. Voll could not power on after she edged behind a wide delivery from Thakur, but Perry took over with a flawless century off 72 balls having earlier notched 7000 runs across formats in international cricket.
Perry was eventually bowled by Deepti and her wicket triggered a late collapse, but Australia still easily surpassed the previous ground record of 325 for a women’s ODI.
With Punia unable to bat, India rejigged their batting order and Ghosh, who batted at No. 6 in the first ODI, made a bright start by whacking Schutt to the boundary on the third delivery. But India’s hopes quickly crashed when opener Smriti Mandhana was bowled off the inside edge from quick Kim Garth and Australia’s disciplined attack kept the run rate under control despite the efforts of Ghosh.
Legspinner Alana King ended Ghosh’s 72-ball 54 by bowling her around the legs as the pressure fell on Harmanpreet, who had started with a first ball boundary and she also clubbed a short ball from McGrath over the ropes. But Harmanpreet fell in the 28th over and the result was a formality despite late fight from Jemimah Rodrigues, who smacked 43 off 39 balls, and Mani.
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth