Voll shines, but spinners hand India A the advantage on day one

Georgia Voll again proved she is a force to be reckoned with in red-ball cricket, but it was an otherwise difficult day for Australia A as their four-day clash against India A got underway on the Gold Coast. 

After Australia A skipper Charli Knott elected to bat first at the Gold Coast District Cricket Club on Thursday morning, Voll was the only batter to find the conditions comfortable, stroking 71 from 95 deliveries.

Fellow opener Emma de Broughe (12) was the only other top six batter to reach double figures as spinners Minnu Mani (5-58) and Priya Mishra (4-58) dominated, and ultimately it was pace bowlers Maitlan Brown (30) and Kate Peterson (26) and leg-spinner Grace Parsons (35) who provided the late boost before the hosts were bowled out for 212.

Both Brown and Peterson then struck with the ball, before Shweta Sehrawat (40no) and Tejal Hasabnis (31no) dug in to steer India A to 2-100 at stumps. 

"We were a bit disappointed with the way we batted early on, we probably started well and lost our way through the middle," Voll said at stumps.

"They’re maybe just on top at the end (of the day), but I think when we come back tomorrow we'll be really attacking, and hopefully can get a couple and knock them over."

Voll's confident knock at the top of the order was the highlight for the hosts.

The 21-year-old Queenslander, who hit a double hundred in the Australia A intra-squad three-day game earlier this year, missed the white-ball legs of the multi-format tour as she recovered from the hamstring injury that also cut short her time in the United Kingdom this winter after just one game for Lancashire Thunder.

But she proved she had no rust to shake off, hitting 12 boundaries before eventually falling to the spin of Mannat Kashyap.

"It was really nice to be back out in the middle and facing bowlers and just spending a bit of time out there," she said.

"The plan was to try and get as close to (playing) the white-ball stuff as I could (but) we knew that was going to be a massive stretch, so we just decided to focus on the red-ball stuff.

"Even then everything had to go pretty much perfectly to get here ... it's really nice to be back and get the opportunity to play a bit more red-ball stuff, which I really enjoy."

Voll said she was confident the Australia A attack could make early breakthroughs on Friday morning to put themselves back on top.

"We definitely think we can still keep them under 200 ... we can hopefully come out really aggressive and grab a couple in the in the morning," she continued.

"We saw in the white-ball stuff, that once we get a couple of wickets they can crumble."

Women’s Australia A v India A Series

First T20: Australia won by five runs

Second T20: Australia won by eight wickets

Third T20: Australia won by seven wickets

Australia A squad: Maitlan Brown, Maddy Darke, Sophie Day, Nicole Faltum (wk), Tess Flintoff, Kim Garth, Nicola Hancock, Charli Knott (vc), Katie Mack, Tahlia McGrath (c), Grace Parsons, Kate Peterson, Tayla Vlaeminck, Tahlia Wilson

First ODI: Australia A won by four wickets

Second ODI: Australia A won by eight wickets

Third ODI: India A won by 171 runs

Australia A squad: Maitlan Brown, Maddy Darke, Sophie Day, Nicole Faltum (wk), Tess Flintoff, Kim Garth, Nicola Hancock, Charli Knott (vc), Katie Mack, Tahlia McGrath (c), Grace Parsons, Kate Peterson, Tayla Vlaeminck, Tahlia Wilson

Four-day match: August 22-25, Gold Coast District Cricket Club, 9.30am

Australia A squad: Maitlan Brown, Maddy Darke (wk), Sophie Day, Emma de Broughe, Nicole Faltum (vc), Tess Flintoff, Charli Knott (c), Katie Mack, Lilly Mills, Grace Parsons, Kate Peterson, Courtney Sippel, Georgia Voll

India A squad: Minnu Mani (c), Shweta Sehrawat (vc), Priya Punia, Shubha Satheesh, Tejal Hasabnis, Kiran Navgire, Sajana Sajeevan, Uma Chetry (wk), Shipra Giri (wk), Raghavi Bisht, Saika Ishaque, Mannat Kashyap, Tanuja Kanwar, Priya Mishra, Meghna Singh, Sayali Satghare, Shabnam Shakeel (subject to fitness), S Yashasri. Standby: Saima Thakor