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Thanks Tanya, hello everyone. That was another mighty innings from Annabel Sutherland, who now has a Sutherlandesque average of 89.37 from seven Tests. And that was after scores of 3 and 8 in her first two innings.
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74th over: Australia 274-7 ( McGrath 11, King 0) Now the second-guessing begins – how much game-playing will Australia do to get India batting under lights later today. Rob Smyth will be your guide to that and much more. Thanks for all your messages, bye!
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WICKET! Sutherland c Harmanpreet b Deepti 129 (Australia 273-7)
With seven overs till the new ball, Sutherland has a sudden rush of blood, gallops to the ball and tries to flay it to the ocean. Instead, she finds Harmanpreet at long on. Standing ovations all round. Well played, gorgeous innings.
73rd over: Australia 273-7 ( McGrath 10, King 0)
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72nd over: Australia 269-6 (Sutherland 125, McGrath 10) Satgahare keeps it tight. I don’t think I imagined it, but the TV just flashed up that Annabel Sutherland’s average at the WACA is 324.
An email drops: “Gardner out…. We are great fans of Ash… she rarely disappoints, but it’s not her day. What a champ is Annabelle Sutherland!! Keep up the great blog.” Thanks Jane Joyce, it’s such a treat to watch women’s Test cricket.
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71st over: Australia 268-6 (Sutherland 122, McGrath 7) While we’re on shadows, they are now stretching to pencil width, McGrath’s double the width of the grass cut strips. Five from Deepti’s over.
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70th over: Australia 263-6 (Sutherland 122, McGrath 7) A maiden from Satghare, and a lively lbw shout against McGrath from the last ball, but no-one is very interested.
“Cricket lovers from India,” writes Conscious Minimalists. “My wife and I were wondering what you really meant by this quote below. Don’t think it’s fair to be commenting on athletes bodies?
Rana, her shadow short and squat. Some turn, and some respite for India, who now have a left hander to aim at.
Oh gosh, just to clear this up I meant that Rana’s shadow was short and squat as the sun was high. Not that she was. Though I do try to describe the players to paint a picture as most people are reading without TV coverage – a player being tall, long arms, long ponytail, looks hot and bothered/ fed up etc etc.
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Updated at 08.55 GMT
69th over: Australia 263-6 (Sutherland 122, McGrath 7) Deepti’s back. A wristy, oh so wristy, four from McGrath. But then plenty of oohs and aahs until Sutherland punctuates proceedings with a lofted oooh la la over mid-off for four. Nine from the over as they take drinks.
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Updated at 08.54 GMT
68th over: Australia 252-6 (Sutherland 117, McGrath 1) Time for some more overs from Satghare. Sutherland gets a leading edge which squirts away in uncontrolled manner. A strangled lbw appeal.
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67th over: Australia 252-6 (Sutherland 117, McGrath 1) Sutherland keeps the run flowing, as she brushes a loose floater from Rana down to the fine leg boundary – and with that her Test average touches 100.
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66th over: Australia 245-6 (Sutherland 110, McGrath 1)
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65th over: Australia 242-6 (Sutherland 108, McGrath 0) Apologies, a few technical hitches as a computer logged me out of the system.
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WICKET! Gardner b Gaud 1 (India 241-6)
The chink of light gets bigger! Exceptional bowling from Gaud who seams most of the over away from Gardner, before bringing back the last off the seam and rattling it through the gate and into the stumps. Gaud holds both arms out as if to say – that’s how you do it.
64th over: Australia 241-6 (Sutherland 107, McGrath 0)
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63rd over: Australia 241-5 (Sutherland 107, Gardner 1) India hold onto a chance from Mooney at last, and see a chink of light through the window – Australia’s lead already 43. Defensive field placings give Gardner an easy single to get off the mark to her first ball, much to Langer’s (?) disgust.
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WICKET! Mooney c Rodrigues b Rana 19 (Australia 240-5)
Great catch! Low down, scoooped up at short cover by Rodrigues as Mooney flaps at Rana.
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62nd over: Australia 240-4 (Sutherland 107, Mooney 19) Sunderland hauls Gaud over the leg side for four, then Mooney joins in, lacing four through backward point.
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61st over: Australia 229-4 (Sutherland 101, Mooney 14)
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A hundred for Sutherland!
60th over: Australia 226-4 (Sutherland 100, Mooney 12) Gaud, hair short and neat, pulls at her shirt. Lovely rhythmic run, lean like a greyhound, back of a length, then a short one – Sutherland flays…a top edge! but it rolls safely away and that’s Sutherland’s fourth Test century, the first Australian women to score four Test centuries, and the first woman to score three consecutive Test centuries. What. A. Star. And just 24. She raises her bat, gets a hug from Mooney and smiles.
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Second session
59th over: Australia 220-4 (Sutherland 93, Mooney 10) Rana resumes. Three singles from it. A nice relaxed start to the session.
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“Keep the reports flowing. We are keeping up here in Thailand with you only. No TV coverage….” well thank you Jan and Rosie in Khao Lak. The TV has currently switched to the FA cup so hopefully that will resolve itself in the next ten minutes….
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Tea – Australia 217-4, lead by 19
58th over: Australia 217-4 (Sutherland 93, Mooney 10) Deepti gets surprise bounce, from nowhere, but the over passes without other incident and everyone marches in for shade, sustenance and water.
Beautiful batting from Perry and Sutherland this morning, and India didn’t help themselves by dropping Mooney twice just as she got to the wicket. They slowed the run rate down considerably though before tea, and the wicket is starting to turn. Something to hold onto during the break.
Time for me to have a stretch and make some breakfast, back soon.
Annabel Sutherland and Beth Mooney fist bump during day two of the women’s Test. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 07.59 GMT
57th over: Australia 215-4 (Sutherland 92, Mooney 9) I should have mentioned that Australia took the lead some time ago – leading now by 17. Four byes
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56th over: Australia 208-4 (Sutherland 90, Mooney 8) Another drop off poor old Deepti, worse still it was Sutherland, who goes to jimmy her away but only turns the ball into Ghosh behind the stump who, in a state of panic, can’t hold on.
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Updated at 07.16 GMT
55th over: Australia 208-4 (Sutherland 90, Mooney 8) And Mooney gets a boundary away, whisking Rana late in front of point for four. She smiles with relief. Ten minutes or so till lunch.
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54th over: Australia 203-4 (Sutherland 89, Mooney 4) Mooney takes another quick single, keen to be at the non striker’s end. Deepti, somehow, bowls a no ball. India have slowed this down nicely.
Should Sutherland reach a hundred, she will become only the second woman to convert her first four Test fifties into hundreds, after England’s Claire Taylor.
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53rd over: Australia 200-4 (Sutherland 88, Mooney 3) Suddenly some nervous running by Australia, as Rana bowls to her field.
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52nd over: Australia 199-4 (Sutherland 88, Mooney 2) Mooney has not found her mojo here yet, picking out the fielders not the gaps. But Sutherland cruises on, sending her one ball of Deepti’s over through the covers and over the rope.
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Updated at 07.03 GMT
51st over: Australia 193-4 (Sutherland 83, Mooney 1) Rana, her shadow short and squat. Some turn, and some respite for India, who now have a left hander to aim at.
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50th over: Australia 193-4 (Sutherland 83, Mooney 1) Deepti again, powered, you’d imagine, with bubbling frustration. No chances for her fielders to fluff in this over though.
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49th over: Australia 191-4 (Sutherland 82, Mooney 0) Ping – Sutherland pancakes Rana through square leg for another four.
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48th over: Australia 186-4 (Sutherland 77, Mooney 0) Oh dear, after making the crucial breakthrough, India manage to drop Beth Mooney twice in two balls, a tricky one through Rawal at silly point, and an absolute dog’s breakfast of an attempt at slip by Rana.
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WICKET! Perry lbw Deepti 76 (Australia 186-4)
From nowhere! Another lbw appeal turned down, but this time Harmanpreet, striding in her shades, reviews. Perry is deep in her crease, and – yes – the ball would have hit leg stump.
Deepti Sharma celebrates taking the wicket of Ellyse Perry. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 08.00 GMT
47th over: Australia 186-3 (Perry 76, Sutherland 77) Rana drops short and Sutherland swivels past a ducking short leg and slams her to the rope. Another boundary to finish the over, a huge front stride then punched through the covers. There was an lbw shout in between to briefly raise spirits, but turned down and Harmanpreet didn’t review, rightly, ball brushed bat on the way through.
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46th over: Australia 176-3 (Perry 76, Sutherland 67) Sutherland rocks onto her backfoot and tracer-bullets Deepti through the covers for four.
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45th over: Australia 171-3 (Perry 76, Sutherland 62) Rana plugs away. The cameras pan to the beautiful yellow WACA manual scoreboard, where a cutout of Healy’s head smiles from one of the portholes.
If you’re sweltering at the WACA, or reading anywhere else round the world, do drop me a line with your thoughts on the cricket and more.
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44th over: Australia 168-3 (Perry 76, Sutherland 59) Well this is all looking rather grim for India. Perry picks up Deepti and lofts her over mid on for four – to overtake Rolton and become Australia’s leading Test scorer in women’s Test cricket.
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A thousand Test runs for Perry
43rd over: Australia 160-3 (Perry 70, Sutherland 57) A casual tuck off her hip and that’s a thousand Test runs for Ellyse Perry – just the second Australian woman to get there after Karen Rolton. In 15 games and with a batting average of 62.5. Has earned her place in the pantheon.
Ellyse Perry has amassed one thousand Test runs. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 08.01 GMT
42nd over: Australia 159-3 (Perry 69, Sutherland 57)Shafali Verma takes her turn with the ball. A handful of singles and that’s the hundred partnership off just 134 balls.
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41st over: Australia 154-3 (Perry 66, Sutherland 55)Perry gets an outside edge, just out of reach of Shafali Verma at slip. Next ball, Sutherland dances and ploughs Deepti for four over straight mid off.
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Updated at 06.21 GMT
Fifty for Annabel Sutherland!
40th over: Australia 147-3 (Perry 63, Sutherland 51) Short leg hovers and Rana induces an inside edge from Sutherland. But the next but one ball has air and Sutherland trots down the pitch and pings her through the covers to reach fifty – off just 70 balls . She modestly raises her bat– every time she has passed fifty in Test cricket, she has made a hundred, which will be cheering news to those of you supporting India.
Annabel Sutherland reaches a half-century against India at the Waca. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 08.02 GMT
39th over: Australia 142-3 (Perry 63, Sutherland 46) Time for some Deepti Sharma for the first time this innings. Shades on, she bustles in. Australia are watchful, just a single from it. This it what India need, to wrestle back a bit of control.
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38th over: Australia 142-3 (Perry 63, Sutherland 46) Healy Hill is largely deserted in the heat, but some spectators are huddling in the shade provided by the hull of a floodlight. Rana, white headband around her brow, wheels in. Just a single.
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Updated at 06.09 GMT
37th over: Australia 141-3 (Perry 63, Sutherland 45) Time for Gautam. Her first ball is pie like and Sutherland tucks in, linen napkin swaying as she wristily drives through the off side for four. Three more singles from the over, and the players take drinks, sheltering under umbrellas from the unrelenting sun.
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Updated at 06.07 GMT
36th over: Australia 134-3 (Perry 58, Sutherland 38) Just one from Satghare’s first five balls, but Perry sniffs something full and inviting and with gimlet eye posts the sixth straight down the ground for four.
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Updated at 06.04 GMT
35th over: Australia 129-3 (Perry 58, Sutherland 38) Gaud is keeping it neat, tempting Australia. Sutherland, winner of the Belinda Clark award last year, square drives with elegance for three.
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34th over: Australia 125-3 (Perry 57, Sutherland 35) Now Sutherland gets in on the act, a straight drive off Sayali to ice a wedding cake. From the commentary box to the crowd, everyone purrs.
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33rd over: Australia 119-3 (Perry 56, Sutherland 30) Perry is looking in ominous form. She eyes up a ball Gaud hangs outside off and late cuts, like a knife through a pineapple, to the rope.
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32nd over: Australia 112-3 (Perry 52, Sutherland 27) Another change as Satghare comes on from the Inverarity end. A thick edge from Sutherland, ugly but effective, runs away towards the rope but a great bit of last minute finger scooping by a diving Rodrigues saves the boundary.
An email! Good morning Peter Warrington: “I don’t see this as close at all, India couldn’t quite capitalise with the ball due to their neophyte attack. If there was a second Test they might have made us finally question Litchfield and Voll up top. But Perry and Sutherland could easily bat all day in the heat today, and then there’s Mooney, then Gardner – why, even McGrath, specialist #8, might fancy a twirl at 6-400 or so to justify her baffling selection.
“Then Sutherland Gardner and King will find the pitch wearing as we bowl again. It shouldn’t really surprise, this Indian team is in serious transition and is at least 3-4 players away from our level, out here. No shame in that.”
From the first few overs today, I think you’re right. India are busy in the field but it looks like a long, hot day ahead.
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Updated at 05.43 GMT
31st over: Australia 109-3 (Perry 52, Sutherland 24) Gaud replaces Rana at the Lillee Marsh End and is immediately on the money, length and line, giving them nothing. A maiden.
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30th over: Australia 109-3 (Perry 52, Sutherland 24) Sutherland picks up a single from Gautam’s first ball to bring up an ominous fifty partnership.
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Updated at 05.34 GMT
Fifty for Perry
29th over: Australia 107-3 (Perry 51, Sutherland 23) Spin immediately from Sneh Rana. India usher in the field and Perry responds by hoeing six into the leg side to reach her fifth Test fifty. I think we can say her eye is in.
Ellyse Perry reaches a half-century for Australia against India in the women’s Test at the Waca. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 05.48 GMT
First session
28th over: Australia 100-3 (Perry 45, Sutherland 22) Perry defends the last ball of the first over from Gautam, which contained four singles to get the juices going.
Kashvee Gautam bowls during day two of the women’s Test between Australia and India. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 05.42 GMT
It’s a fiery 38 degrees today at the WACA as the players emerge onto the grass. India huddle, Perry and Sutherland march on, Sutherland’s helmet bright green, Perry’s faded to grey.
Justin Langer says this is a good battting pitch, and will get better and better. Sutherland and Perry are nicely set and India have no lights to help them now, they’ll need every catch to stick, every ball to nip.
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Preamble
Tanya Aldred
Hello! Thirteen wickets fell on a restless first day in Perth to leave Australia in the more promising position – by the width of a cigarette paper. India were bundled out for just 198 midway through the day, and Australia finished 102 behind at stumps, though crucially with seven wickets still in hand.
Things could have been worse for India had Jemimah Rodrigues not knotted together a patient fifty against the firepower of Annabel Sutherland (4 for 46) and left-arm whiz-kid Lucy Hamilton, just 19 but who finished with three wickets on her Test debut.
India’s own bright young thing, Sayali Satghare, had a moment of her own, removing Alyssa Healy in her penultimate innings for Australia, caught at point for 13. But Ellyse Perry was unbeaten on 43 at stumps and Annabel Sutherland is lingering ominously.
It should be fun. Do join us, play starts at 1.20pm local/4.20pm AEDT/10.50am IST.
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