India vs Australia One-Off Test: Pooja Vastrakar’s peach to Ellyse Perry the highlight of a dominant Day 1 for Harmanpreet Kaur & Co | Cricket News

What connects Nat Sciver-Brunt and Ellyse Perry? Apart from being two of the foremost all-rounders in the game, the two superstars have both been done in a peach of a delivery from India’s Pooja Vastrakar in the space of a week.Landing on a good length, check. Hint of movement back into the batter due to a wobbly seam, check. Finding the gap between bat and pad, check. Hitting the stumps, check. England’s Sciver-Brunt was bowled for a first-ball duck in Navi Mumbai last week, and it was Australian Perry’s turn on the second ball she faced in Mumbai on Thursday.
“Pyaar toh sir red ball se hai hi waise,” Vastrakar said after the opening day’s play, on bowling with the SG Test ball. Her love for the red ball has increased after it brought two moments in her young international career that she can remember for a lifetime. After setting up the win on day three in the Test against England, the 24-year-old rattled Australia with figures of 4/53 after the visitors opted to bat first at the Wankhede Stadium.
The ball to dismiss Perry – for the lowest score yet in her incredibly successful Test career – was the undoubted highlight of the day as India bowled out the Aussies for 219. In response, India reached 98/1 after a solid opening partnership between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, before the former fell close to stumps. India trailed 121 runs after a dominant Day 1 display against the best in the business.
Elite delivery to Perry
Vastrakar’s l of victims over the last week now includes Heather Knight (twice), Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland, and Ash Gardner along with the two aforementioned stalwarts.

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Run-out ✅Timber strike ✅
How about that for a start from #TeamIndia 👏 👏
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“The plan was to hit the wicket as much as possible. That’s what the bowling coach told us, to stay wicket-to-wicket and hit the deck. It was also important to bring the ball back, that is what I did to Perry early,” she said. “I am naturally an outswing bowler. But our video analysis showed that the batters from both teams struggle a bit with the incoming delivery. So that was the aim during practice, that we will use the wobble seam to bring the ball in.”
After getting Perry’s wicket, Vastrakar struggled a bit for consency when Tahlia McGrath counterpunched. But she’d return to the bowling attack before lunch to have another big impact. Mooney had been grinding it out in the middle, in a battle against India’s bowlers as well as the Decision Review System, but her presence in the middle would have been a comforting factor for the Aussie dressing room. But with a change of angle to round the stumps, and a ball banged into the pitch that came up over shoulder height, Vastrakar induced an outside edge and picked up a massive wicket. With four wickets down in the first session, India had the upper hand.
Vastrakar struck a couple of telling blows in the second session too, with the Australian batting order filled with quality through the middle. Sutherland, who scored a century in the Ashes Test earlier this year, was brilliantly set up. First, the natural outswinger that beat the outside edge. Next up, another one that nipped back in and this time, LBW. A natural away-moving delivery then ended Gardner’s stay as Vastrakar broke the back of Australia’s star-studded line-up.
The pacer had come in for praise from India’s bowling coach Troy Cooley before this match. “Through rehab (from a sore knee), she dedicated herself to improvingher run-up and getting the most out of it. She has done a marvellous job there. Now she is more balanced at the crease. You can see the natural tendency now to get into the stumps and challenge the batters. She has got enough pace and variations to be a good red-ball bowler,” the Aussie had said.

#TeamIndia off to a cracking start! 👌 👌
A quickfire 5⃣0⃣-run stand between vice-captain @mandhana_smriti & @TheShafaliVerma 🤝
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Opportunities have not always been consent for Vastrakar. Former head coach WV Raman, on commentary duty for the match, had observed that her bowling has a lot to do with confidence and control, and that rhythm has been evident in the last couple of matches.
“I know behind the scenes what work they are putting in and the growth has been in line with the work they have done,” Cooley had said about his bowling unit.
“The biggest improvement is that they have added some skills and variations. Not only that, the control and when to use them, that’s come into it quite nicely. The strategy behind what ball they are going to use – whether to attack or defend.”
Cooley had also added that new head coach Amol Muzumdar has come in with the main diktat that players should go into every training session with a focus on improving themselves. And in the small sample space so far, Vastrakar and the rest of the bowling unit have done likewise. “These girls have been doing extra work in the last two or three months. Their work ethic is through the roof,” Cooley added.

There was resance in patches from Australia, courtesy Tahlia McGrath’s 50 (despite a couple of lives) and Alyssa Healy’s 38, but the Indian spin trio of Sneh Rana (3/56), Deepti Sharma (2/45), and Rajeshwari Gayakwad bowled with good control on a pitch that has already shown signs of low bounce. A couple of frustrating late partnerships extended Australia’s innings, but it was yet another day of the bowling unit collectively stepping up in a format that they don’t play enough.Cooley mentioned how the Indian bowling unit now talks about ‘talking to the ball and they are getting some good answers back’. On Thursday, Vastrakar got the ball talking alright.