BRISTOL, July 12: Australia defeated India by eight wickets in the ICC Women�s World Cup here today.
Put into bat, India scored 226 for seven in the stipulated 50 overs, but Australia chased down the target of 227 with 29 balls to spare. For the winning team MM Lanning remained not out on 76 while NE Bolton (36) and BL Mooney (45) were the other notable contributors.
Earlier, opener Punam Raut�s fighting century and a record-breaking 69 from skipper Mithali Raj enabled India post a decent 226 for 7 against the formidable Australia.
Raut (106, 136 balls) and Mithali (69, 114 balls) added 157 runs for the second wicket but they consumed more than 37 overs in the process.
The highlight of the Indian innings was Mithali surpassing former England captain Charlotte Edwards� aggregate of 5992 runs to become the highest run-getter in the history of women�s ODI.
En route her 49th ODI half-century, she also became the first batswoman to reach the individual milestone of 6000 runs.
Pint-sized Punam, who hit 11 boundaries, played confidently against the spinners � off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner (1/48 in 10 overs) and leg-spinner Kirsten Beans (0/43 in 9 overs).
SCORECARD
India: PG Raut c Bolton b Perry 106, S Mandhana c Healy b Gardner 3, M Raj c & b Beams 69, H Kaur st Healy b Schutt 23, V Krishnamurthy run out 0, S Verma b Schutt 6, J Goswami b Perry 2, S Pandey not out 7, DB Sharma not out 5. Extras: (W-5) 5. Total (For 7 wickets in 50 overs) 226. Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-166, 3-203, 4-204, 5-208, 6-211, 7-220. Bowling: ML Schutt 10-0-52-2, A Gardner 10-1-48-1, JL Jonassen 10-1-38-0, EA Perry 10-0-37-2, KM Beams 9-0-43-1, EJ Villani 1-0-8-0.
Australia: NE Bolton c Verma b Poonam Yadav 36, BL Mooney run out45, MM Lanning not out 76, EA Perry not out 60. Extras: (lb 1, w 9) 10. Total: (2 wickets; 45.1 overs) 227. Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-103. Bowling: J Goswami 5.1-1-27-0, DB Sharma 10-2-44-0, S Pandey 6-1-16-0, H Kaur 6-0-38-0, E Bisht 10-1-55-0, Poonam Yadav 8-0-46-1. � Agencies
