20th over: Australia 134-1 (Perry 1, Voll 68) Thakor returns for her second spell and Litchfield shows great footwork to come down the pitch and smack the ball over the boundary, before attempting another little scoop shot past the keeper, which is ruled as wides. But Thakor finally makes the breakthrough and brings Perry to the crease – it must be a nightmare to play Australia and have more and more incredible players come out every time you get a wicket.

WICKET! Litchfield c Harmanpreet b Thakor 60 (Australia 130-1)

19th over: Australia 123-0 (Litchfield 56, Voll 65) Litchfield looks like she’s really flying now after passing 50 and starts the over with a four from Priya’s bowling. She quickly turns the strike over and Minnu catches the edge of Voll’s bat, but it falls short of a diving fielder and trickles over the boundary for four. Next ball she’s given out LBW, but Voll challenges and the ball is shown to be missing the wicket and she is able to continue. Litchfield finishes the over with another reverse sweep, which she is playing with ease now.

18th over: Australia 112-0 (Litchfield 50, Voll 60) Minnu beats the bat of Litchfield from the first ball of the over and she looks pretty pleased with herself as well she might! Litchfield gets bat on ball next ball, it goes straight to the fielder at cover, but it’s misfielded – fortunately for India there is a fielder at deep extra cover to cut it off, as it looked like being a costly mistake for a second there. Voll is opening up with some bigger and riskier shots now, but they’re falling safely and being fielded. Litchfield finishes with her half-century from the last ball of the over.

50 for Phoebe Litchfield!

17th over: Australia 107-0 (Litchfield 47, Voll 58) Another over for Thakur and Litchfield starts it comfortably with a single to fine leg. Voll picks up another single from the second ball of the over to bring up the 100 run partnership. Litchfield goes up an over with a slightly risky shot, but it lands safely and then Voll drives another one for four to keep her innings motoring along.

16th over: Australia 98-0 (Litchfield 45, Voll 51) Minnu starts her over well, again just giving away a few singles with some dots in there as well. Only four from the over – it seems the batters are still getting a feel for the way she bowls and aren’t taking too many risks against her just yet.

50 for Georgia Voll!

15th over: Australia 94-0 (Litchfield 43, Voll 49) Thakur returns for her second spell and she starts well with a good line and length after a bit of a rest in these hot conditions. However Litchfield moves her feet to the ball midway through the over for a glorious shot for six over long off. Thakur makes a good recovery next ball, which Litchfield can only get away for a single.

14th over: Australia 85-0 (Litchfield 36, Voll 47) The debutant Minnu comes on to bowl her first over, she starts with a very big deep breath at the top of her mark. Litchfield cuts the first ball for a single to bring Voll on strike. Both batters are watchful as they get an idea of what Minnu can do, with six runs from the over as they turn the strike over.

13th over: Australia 79-0 (Litchfield 32, Voll 45) Deepti resumes after drinks – she has been the best of the Indian bowlers so far. Litchfield employs the scoop from the second ball, narrowly evading Richa’s outstretched hand for a single. These two seem to have found enough of a rhythm against Deepti to keep turning the strike over and removing the dot ball pressure that she was able to build earlier. Eventually Litchfield is able to use her reverse sweep again and gets it through the field for four.

12th over: Australia 71-0 (Litchfield 26, Voll 43) Priya returns for her second over – she gave away nine runs from her first over, so she will be looking to tighten up her line here. She starts well, with Litchfield not able to get the ball through the field from the first delivery and then Priya is able to beat the bat on the next two. However Priya then completely misses her length and offers up a full toss, that Litchfield happily pulls to deep mid-wicket, but luckily for Priya it’s only a single. Voll plays a lovely cut shot for another single, so Priya is bowling to her field well this over, but unfortunately for her, Litchfield pulls out her reverse sweep for four to end an otherwise good over. Drinks are on the field now.

11th over: Australia 65-0 (Litchfield 21, Voll 42) That’s the end of the power play now and it was a good one for Australia. Deepti continues her bowling without the fielding restrictions, so it will be interesting to see if and how the approaches of the batters and bowlers change here. Litchfield plays a lovely pull shot, but it finds the fielder out near the boundary and it’s just a single. Voll doesn’t have the same issue, charging down the pitch to the ball and getting it up over the field and over the boundary for four.

10th over: Australia 59-0 (Litchfield 20, Voll 37) Priya enters the attack for the first time today and there’s a run out attempt on the first ball after Voll attempts a run and is sent back, but she easily makes her ground. Voll takes some time to get a look at the leg spinner, but then manages to create a low full toss by moving her feet to the ball and sending the delivery past deep cover for four. At the end of the over, Litchfield also employs great footwork to get a cut shot through the field and over the boundary rope as well.

9th over: Australia 50-0 (Litchfield 16, Voll 32) Litchfield has got her gloves off and appears to be shaking them dry at the non-strikers’s end, if you’re wondering what the heat and humidity are like out there! The two bring up their 50 partnership from the first ball of this Deepti over through a single to Voll. It’s a great over from Deepti, just the one run from it.

8th over: Australia 49-0 (Litchfield 16, Voll 31) We get our first extra of the match to start this over, with Thakor bowling a wide. She tries to over correct and bowl full next ball, but she misses her length and gives Litchfield exactly what she’s looking for, moving her feet to the ball and getting it past long off for four, followed by a pull shot past deep backward square for another four next ball. Litchfield looks to have found her rhythm now and is a bit less panicked-looking than she was earlier in her innings. Thakor tries to finish her over, but she gives away another wide – I’d expect to see her out of the attack after this over, with heat and fatigue setting in.

7th over: Australia 37-0 (Litchfield 7, Voll 30) Deepti Sharma enters the attack now – she didn’t bowl at all in the last match, with not too many overs to hand out to the bowlers defending such a low total. Litchfield finds a single early in the over to give Voll her first look at Deepti. Voll starts cautiously, with two defensive shots in a row, before looking for a little drop and run, but she can’t push it wide of the fielder. She finds two runs behind her to finish the over.

6th over: Australia 34-0 (Litchfield 6, Voll 28) Thakor resumes to Litchfield, who is finding scoring a bit more difficult than Voll at the moment. She needs to not let her impatience overcome her, as it often does when she faces too many dot balls. Just as I say that, she gets away with one as she chips it to Punia at mid on, who dives forward, but can’t hold on to the ball. Litchfield manages to get off strike with a single next ball and then Voll drives it down to the boundary once again from a gentle half volley.

5th over: Australia 29-0 (Litchfield 5, Voll 24) Voll is looking incredibly comfortable out there, starting the over with a drive past deep cover for another boundary and following it up with yet another straight drive past the bowler for four. A reminder that Voll has only been selected for this series against India as a replacement for Healy, so she will be dropped back out of this team when they tour New Zealand later this month. She’s making that look like something the selectors very much need to reconsider at the moment. The batters take a very quick single that requires Voll to make a big dive, but she makes her ground and the relationship between these two batters means these singles are always on, which puts pressure on the fielders.

4th over: Australia 19-0 (Litchfield 4, Voll 15) Voll picks up where she left off, with another straight drive from the first ball of the over, straight back past Thakor to the boundary. Some quick fielding adjustments force her to play to deep backward square leg for just a single and gets Litchfield back on strike after spending a lot of time at the non-striker’s end. Litchfield comes down the pitch to attack the ball, but is beaten by a full delivery, which forces her to reassess and play further back in her crease for the rest of the over.

3rd over: Australia 14-0 (Litchfield 4, Voll 10) Thakur returns to bowl her second over, bowling to Voll for the first time this game. Voll finds some runs straight away, with a lovely cut shot to deep point to pick up two runs. Richa Ghosh in keeper appeals on the second ball of the over for LBW, but no one else is very interested in it and it appears Voll got a bit of bat on it. Thakur starts to build some dot ball pressure, but Voll is able to release it with a beautiful straight drive back past the bowler for four along this very quick outfield.

2nd over: Australia 7-0 (Litchfield 4, Voll 3) Voll gets her first chance to face a delivery and she starts with a little poke out to point, which is fielded easily, before a play and miss on a good ball from Thakor. She starts to look a little frustrated at her inability to pierce the field just yet, Litchfield comes down the pitch to offer a few words of support. Finally Thakor bowls a looser delivery down leg side, that Voll manages to flick off her pads nearly to the boundary, but it’s fielded well by Punia on the boundary, and she gets three runs from it.

1st over: Australia 4-0 (Litchfield 4, Voll 0) No surprises that Thakur opens the bowling for India and she starts with a great ball, that Litchfield defends. But next ball, Litchfield gets the scoring underway, driving nicely to beat the fielder at mid-off and opening the scoring with a boundary. However, it’s a great recovery from Thakur and there are no more runs scored from the over.

The openers are on the field for Australia and we’re ready to get underway!

Megan Schutt is speaking pre-match and is making a case for ODI being the best format of cricket, despite that being a relatively unpopular opinion these days.

“ODI, I absolutely love it. I think it’s the perfect format,” she says.

By all accounts, it’s a hot one in Brisbane today – it’s 29.6 degrees right now and not even 9:30am yet, heading for a high of 35 degrees. The humidity will also be a factor, currently hovering at around 60%. There is also a forecast for rain and thunderstorms later this afternoon and evening, so depending on if and when those hit, DLS may become a factor in the game. That may play into Australia’s thinking batting first, wanting to go at a decent rate to ensure a trickier chase for India if the match is shortened. Lots of fascinating factors in play here today!

Just one change for Australia today, with Sophie Molineux in for Georgia Wareham. For India, there is also one change with Minnu Mani on debut, replacing Titas Sadhu.

Australia win the toss and elect to bat

While the result of the first game could suggest another easy match for the Australians, there is plenty of potential in India’s squad and they have every chance of taking the win if they play at their best. The two teams have had some very exciting contests in recent years. The 2021 series was a particularly memorable one – while the series looks one-sided in pure results (Australia won the ODIs 2-1, the T20s 2-0 and the only Test was drawn), there were some brilliant contests within those matches, including a last ball win to Australia in the second ODI in Mackay.

Meanwhile, in India late last year, the Indian team stamped their dominance in the Test arena, defeating Australia by eight wickets at Wankhede. The ability to win is there for India, let’s see if they can harness it today.

If you need a bit more of a refresher on last match, you can go back to the match report and re-live that glorious Voll innings, while we wait for today’s match to start.

Preamble

Megan Maurice