Tejal Hasabnis‘ 81 off 82 balls, laced with six power-packed sixes, and Niki Prasad‘s all-round show gave India A a four-wicket win over Australia A in the first one-dayer in Mohali as they chased down 236 in 41.1 overs.

Earlier, India’s spinners played an equally important role in setting up the win. Niki, Vaishnavi Sharma and Amandeep Kaur shared eight wickets to trigger a collapse and bowl out the visitors in 46.3 overs.

At one stage, Australia were 149 for 2 but they lost the next eight wickets for just 86 runs. Prasad picked up 3 for 28, Vaishnavi 3 for 40, and Amandeep, on her India A debut, took 2 for 56.

India had a nervy start to their chase and were 46 for 3 in the tenth over. But Hasabnis and Anushka Sharma attacked their way out of trouble. They added 126 off as many balls to put the team on the victory path. Anushka fell for 55 off 61 when the target was still 64 runs away. But the required run rate had dropped to 3.25 by then. Even though Hasabnis too fell soon after, Prasad ensured there was no repeat of the third T20. She scored an unbeaten 32 off 22 balls and finished the game with a reverse-swept four to deep third.

Earlier, after being put in, Australia had got off to a solid start, thanks to captain Tahlia Wilson’s 48 off 53 balls. Charli Knott further injected momentum by hitting 39 off just 27 deliveries. But Prasad put the brakes on the scoring rate. Vaishnavi and Amandeep reaped the rewards of that but Prasad wasn’t to be denied for long. She eventually finished with the best figures for any bowler in the match, and it including an excellent one-handed return catch to dismiss Lilly Mills.