Mandhana provides batting blueprint for Test transition

Meg Lanning credited Indian ace Smriti Mandhana with providing a blueprint for transitioning into Test match batting on day one at Metricon Stadium, but the Australia captain also lamented her pace attack's failure to pitch the ball up in what might prove a costly opening hour for the hosts.

Mandhana was in sparkling touch in stroking an unbeaten 80 from 144 balls, which included 15 fours and a six on a pitch that didn't offer the pace and bounce the Australians hoped it would after opting to bowl first.

On a day in which 55.5 overs were lost to rain, India's total of 1-132 was an imposing if far from impregnable one at the close of play, with spinners Sophie Molineux and Ashleigh Gardner effective in stemming the flow of runs to keep the home side in the contest after some worrying early signs.

"I think we took a little while to adjust to the conditions – we were maybe just a touch too short with our length and it allowed them to play off the back foot a bit more than we wanted," Lanning said after her quicks conceded 70 from a wicket-less first 15 overs.

"I thought the second hour of the first session we were much better and able to build some pressure."

"It's a format we don't play a lot of so adjusting to it as a little bit different, (but) we feel like we've read the conditions a bit more now and hopefully tomorrow we can come out, build some pressure and not give that release ball; I think that was probably the thing today – we'd bowl three or four good balls and then we'd just let them off the hook a little bit with a slightly shorter length."

The in-form Mandhana, who made starts in all three ODIs but only went on to make one score of significance (86 in game two), regularly capitalised on Australia's inconsistent lengths, at one point crashing debutante quick Darcie Brown for four fours in a single over.

The left-hander moved to 51 from as many balls before shifting down the gears as the day wore on.

"Her tempo was excellent in this innings," Lanning said. "She was punishing the bad balls and defending the good ones, which is pretty simple but when you can actually execute that it's certainly very effective.

"She counter-punched a fair bit and when we were just off with our lengths she was able to really punish us."

Australia's decision to bowl first would doubtless have been influenced by the green tinge to the wicket, but Lanning said her decision to introduce spin after 15 overs despite boasting a five-woman pace attack was at least in part down to the ball "holding up" in the wicket.

Mandhana commented similarly, and her comparison between this Metricon Stadium surface and the two pitches used for the ODIs in Mackay was an interesting one.

"In the first 10 overs I think they bowled quite short, especially considering the wicket – the Mackay wicket, where we played the one-dayers, and the wicket today, were completely different," she said.

"Today's wicket was quite, I would say, wet. It wasn't as hard as they would've loved, so I think the length they bowled in the one-dayers was similar but it suited that (Mackay) wicket.

"So definitely considering the wicket they were slightly short in the first 10, 15 overs but they kind of made it up post that.

"With the kind of wicket it looked like, definitely we also wanted to bowl first, but looking at the scoreboard now I think we are happy to bat first."

Lanning was optimistic that a more consistent effort with the ball on day two would pay dividends in their attempts to prise out Mandhana, adding that the key wicket of the classy 25-year-old could bust the innings open.

"So far she's played extremely well," the Australia skipper said. "We feel like we're still in the game (with her) when we get it right for long periods of time, but we didn't quite do it for long enough.

"She's showed how to adapt to this format, so hopefully we can come out tomorrow and be a bit more consistent bowling to her and therefore we'll hopefully be able to get a wicket, and if we can get one, we feel like we can get a couple in a row.

"We've looked at it and we feel like we've got a good plan heading into tomorrow – it's just about executing, keeping it really simple and being as disciplined as we can for a little bit longer, and trying to force a mistake."

CommBank Series v India

Australia lead India 4-2 on points

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Stella Campbell, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Redmayne, Molly Strano, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham

India Test and ODI squad: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht.

India T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh.

First ODI:Australia won by nine wickets

Sep 24: Australia won by five wickets

Sep 26: India won by two wickets

Sep 30 – Oct 3: Test match, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast (D/N)

Oct 7: First T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Oct 9: Second T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Oct 10: Third T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast