Georgia Voll's Unbeaten 131 Takes Australia Women to the Series — Sobhana Mostary's Hundred Deserved Better

For three hours at Allan Border Field on Sunday, this looked like a different series. Bangladesh Women, bowled out for 166 two days earlier, had lost three wickets for eight runs and then refused to lose another for almost 40 overs. Sobhana Mostary made a hundred, Nigar Sultana batted through, and 220 felt like a total with a story to tell. Then Georgia Voll walked out and told a quicker one.

Bangladesh Women 220/6 (50 overs). Australia Women 222/1 (28.1 overs). Australia Women won by 9 wickets with 131 balls remaining and lead the three-match series 2-0. Georgia Voll, 131 not out from 97 balls, was Player of the Match.

Asked to bat again, Bangladesh Women lost Fargana Hoque in the fourth over, caught behind by Beth Mooney off Megan Schutt for 0. Kim Garth trapped Sarmin Sultana in the seventh, upheld on review, and Schutt bowled Sharmin Akhter with the second ball of the eighth. The first powerplay produced 17 runs and three wickets, and at that point the match looked like a repeat of Friday.

Australia Women's bowlers kept the scoring tight through the middle — Garth's ten overs cost 35, Alana King's five only 18 — but could not separate Mostary and Nigar Sultana until the 48th over. Schutt came back to bowl Mostary for 118, had Shorna Akter caught by Georgia Wareham in the last over, and ran out Ritu Moni the next ball. Four wickets and a run out from one bowler, and a quiet reminder of what experience is worth at both ends of an innings.

Then the chase, which was no chase at all. Voll and Litchfield took 82 from the first powerplay without losing a wicket. Voll reached fifty from 34 balls; Litchfield followed from 41. Australia Women were 143 for 0 at the drinks break after 17 overs. Litchfield fell for 70 in the 20th over, caught by Habiba Islam off Shorna Akter, with the score on 162. Ellyse Perry joined Voll, who reached her hundred from 81 balls, survived a Bangladesh review in the 27th over, and finished unbeaten on 131 as the winning runs came in the 29th.

Whatever the scoreline says, Bangladesh Women's batting answered the question it was asked after the first ODI. From 8 for 3, Sobhana Mostary and Nigar Sultana batted 243 balls together. It was patient work at first — 43 for 3 at the first drinks break, 117 for 3 at the second — and then it opened up. Mostary went from fifty off 66 balls to a hundred off 123, with 18 fours in all. Nigar Sultana reached her fifty from 97 balls and was 74 not out at the end. The 195-run stand ended only in the 48th over.

The difficulty was what came after. Bangladesh Women were 203 for 3 when Mostary fell in the 48th over, and they added only 17 more from the last 13 balls while losing two more wickets. And with the ball they had no answer to Australia's openers: none of their six bowlers went for less than six an over, and Marufa Akter's 4.1 overs cost 40. Shorna Akter's wicket of Litchfield was the only one they took.

We weren't at the ground, so the scorecard has to speak for the pitch. Bangladesh Women lost three wickets in the first eight overs and made 17 in their powerplay; Australia Women made 82 without loss in theirs. Once Mostary and Nigar Sultana were set, they scored freely enough to take 220 from a position of 8 for 3, and Australia's openers never looked troubled. The new ball did its work in the first hour; after that, this was a surface that paid batters who got in.

There is a kind of innings that does not chase a target so much as dismiss it. Voll's 131 not out came from 97 balls, with 19 fours and not a single six — all along the ground, all placement and timing. She was 82 at the drinks break, in the 17th over, and the target of 221 was already more than half gone.

Mostary's hundred was made against the clock and the scoreboard; Voll's was made with both on her side. On a day with two centuries, it was the one that came in a hurry that decided where the series would go.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Australia Women have won the series with a game to spare, after their 7-wicket win in the first ODI on October 9. The 3rd ODI is on October 14. For Bangladesh Women, it is a chance to carry Sunday's batting into a complete performance — and to find a way of taking wickets with the new ball, which is where Australia Women have pulled away in both matches.