Australia demolish India by 10 wickets in one-off women's pink-ball Test, Healy bids farewell

Australia defeated India by 10 wickets in the one-off women's day-night Test at the WACA Ground on Sunday, sealing a comprehensive series win. Ashleigh Gardner and Alana King wrapped up India's second innings in little over an hour on the final morning, with Pratika Rawal the last to fall after a dogged 137-ball 63 . Georgia Voll and Phoebe Litchfield then chased down the target of 25 without loss to seal the Test. The result gave Australia a 12-4 win in the multi-format series.

Australia won the toss and elected to bowl on a scorching Perth day. Annabel Sutherland (4-46) and 19-year-old debutant Lucy Hamilton (3-31) were the chief destroyers as India were bowled out for 198 , with Jemimah Rodrigues top-scoring with 52.

Australia's first innings was anchored by Sutherland and Ellyse Perry, who put on 128 for the fourth wicket . Perry made 76 off 116 balls and became Australia's all-time leading run-scorer in women's Test cricket , surpassing Karen Rolton's tally of 1,002 runs. Sutherland went on to make 129 off 171 balls , her third consecutive Test century, as Australia posted 323, taking a first-innings lead of 125 runs .

India's second innings started disastrously when Darcie Brown bowled Smriti Mandhana off the inside edge off the very second delivery. Sutherland then removed Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur in quick succession, and Hamilton dismissed Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh in the same over, leaving India at 82 for six at the close of day two.

India resumed day three at 105 for six , with Rawal and Sneh Rana at the crease. The pair extended their partnership before Gardner bowled Rana for 30. The remaining wickets fell quickly. Rawal's innings ended when she attempted a pull off Gardner, mistimed it, and Sutherland ran across from backward square leg to take a tumbling catch, ending India's innings at 149.

The match also marked the final international appearance of retiring skipper Alyssa Healy , who brought down the curtain on a distinguished 16-year career with Australia. Healy, one of the most celebrated wicketkeeper-batters in women's cricket, did not bat in the chase but walked back onto the field after the win to shake hands with the India players. In an emotional scenes at the WACA, she was chaired off the ground by Perry and Gardner as teammates and support staff applauded. Healy said, "I am going to sing the team song one last time. I am genuinely excited to watch this group of amazing people moving forward. Long live Test cricket and hopefully we can see more of it."

Harmanpreet Kaur said, "We started well in T20Is with a series win but could not continue the good work in ODIs and Tests. The pink-ball Test was a different challenge."

Sutherland was named Player of the Match and Player of the Series.