With India ‘A’ going pretty aggressive, we knew something would come, says Knott

Gold Coast, Aug 25 : After sealing a 45-run win in an engrossing four-day red-ball match against India ‘A’, Australia ‘A’ skipper Charli Knott said the team knew wickets would come sooner due to them being aware of the visitors’ aggressive batting nature.

On day four, Uma Chetry (47) and Raghvi Bist (26) stitched a 79-run stand for the seventh wicket, as India ‘A’ needed just 80 more runs to chase down 289. But Tess Flintoff’s double strike in the 83rd over, where she removed both set batters, paved the way for Australia ‘A’ to win the match.

"It was definitely an exciting match. Day one we felt a little bit nervous after not putting in a great performance with the bat (to be bowled out for 212 in first innings). But the bowling group has managed to do an awesome job and the second innings with the bat, our lower order really fought to get us to a defendable total which we needed in the end there."

"It was a bit nerve-racking at the start. They put on 60 runs or so without a wicket lost. But we knew once we got one wicket we'd get the rest so we just had to stick in there. They were going pretty aggressive so we knew something would come," said Charli to reporters after the game ended.

The result also sees Australia ‘A’ take a 6-1 victory in the multi-format series after winning T20s 3-0 at Brisbane and emerging victorious in two of the three 50-over matches at Mackay.

The red-ball game also had Australia women’s national selector Shawn Flegler in attendance, where opener Georgia Voll (71), wicketkeeper-batter Maddy Darke (105 not out) and Kate Peterson (5-16) were the standout performers in the engrossing four-day match.

"We only won by 40-something runs in the end so without those (runs in second innings) we wouldn't have got over the line. We obviously don't play a lot of this format so just learning from innings to innings about tactics has been a great experience. It's been (a great) learning experience for us and very beneficial for our development," concluded Charli.