Darcie Brown's 4-33 and fifties from Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, and Meg Lanning steered Australia Women to a thumping nine-wicket win against India Women in the first ODI in Harrup Park, Mackay.
At 18, Brown became the youngest Australian to bag an ODI four-wicket haul to restrict India to 225/8 after Lanning won the toss and asked them to bat. Haynes (93* in 100 balls) and Healy (77 in 77) then forged a 126-run opening wicket stand. Lanning (53*) carried the momentum, and added another unbroken 101 with Haynes to take Australia home with nine overs to spare. With that, they extended their record-breaking ODI winning streak to 25 matches.
Barring Jhulan Goswami, the Indian bowlers looked wayward against Australia's top three. Pooja Vastrakar and Deepti Sharma disappointed the most. Poonam Yadav claimed the only wicket of the Australian innings.
In the morning, Brown got Shafali Verma (8) and Smriti Mandhana (16) inside six overs to send India on the back foot. At No. 3, debutant Yastika Bhatia impressed with a 51-ball 35, and stitched a stand with Mithali Raj ((63) to revive the Indian innings.
Raj brought up her fifth successive ODI fifty, but failed to shift the gear in her 107-ball stay. Richa Ghosh (32* in 29) played a breezy cameo at the late stage, still, it was not enough for India against the fearsome Australian batters. They dominated throughout the contest, and took the 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
The two sides will again meet on 24 September for the second ODI, at the same venue.
Brief scores: India Women 225/8 in 50 overs (Mithali Raj 63; Darcie Brown 4-33) lost to Australia Women 227/1 in 41 overs (Rachael Haynes 93*; Poonam Yadav 1-58) by 9 wickets with 54 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Darcie Brown.