The Australian Women's Test team got their one-off Test against India off to a shocking start in Mumbai overnight, dismissed for 219 runs by the home team, who went on to chase down a large chunk of that, 98/1 at stumps.
Two wickets in the first 10 balls set the tone for the home side, including a diamond duck for Phoebe Litchfield, as well as bowling Elyse Perry for a Test career-low four runs and not allowing any player to score more than 50, a mark hit by Tahlia McGrath.
With the bat in hand, the Indian team began the chase down in dominant fashion, both openers scoring at least 40 runs - Shafali Verma dismissed with 40, Smriti Mandhana not out with 43.
After the day's play, Australia's top run-scorer McGrath acknowledged to reporters that the team had not performed up to standards, particularly when bowling.
"We missed the mark with the ball today... we slightly overpitched and got punished," McGrath said.
"Slightly full, slightly too much width, and with the class of players like Smriti and Shafali we got put away.
"You could see we were able to bowl a few maidens when we get our lines and lengths right, it's a difficult wicket to score on, so we just need to be a little bit more disciplined with our plans and create some pressure like India were able to do to us.
"We've reflected on it (and) we were a little bit slow to adapt today. But in saying that, in our trial game that was our biggest strength – our length – so it's there and it's just about executing, which didn't happen today."
The Australians will now have to tighten the screws on their bowling performance if they wish to keep the home team at bay, with India only needing 121 runs to catch them.
