India v Australia
Wankhede Stadium, Bombay: 10th – 13th February 1984
To Bombay and the Wankede Stadium for the fourth and final Test match. The teams were given a rare four day fixture in an effort to achieve a result. Six hours of play per day and 96 overs to be bowled, with a new ball to be taken every 75 overs. Shantha Rangaswamy won the toss and batted.
Australia bowled 122 overs on day one. Lyn Fullston bowled 48 of them. From those 122 overs, India crawled to 5/201. It was painstakingly slow and there was clearly no intent to try and set up the match, but instead to kill it off. The opener, Sandhya Agarwal, was not out 80 at the end of the day and the following day went on to score 134. Rangaswamy was 54 not out when India’s last wicket fell for 340, from 191.5 overs, of which Fullston bowled 67.5, taking 4-80. Australia were 2/90 at the end of day two.
On day three Kennare declared 8/358, slightly ahead of India and well ahead in terms of scoring rate. Once more she had teamed up with the in form Peta Verco, but unfortunately the skipper fell for 99, while the opener compiled 78.
“Day 3 we were feeling confident and the plan was to make a big score quickly and declare, thereby putting the onus on them to get a result. We scored more runs than India did in 60 less overs! We had a team meeting that night to discuss the situation and the plan for the final day was to attack.”
That plan went astray as the Indian openers proved hard to dislodge. India were 153 before the first wicket, that of Agarwal for 83, giving her a fine, if slow, double for the match. Rangaswamy declared at 7/253, giving Australia 28 overs to score 218 runs for victory. Again Lyn Fullston carried the attack, bowling 45 overs taking 3-81. Jen Jacobs also bowled long spells, ending with four wickets from 30 overs.
The run chase was impossible, but the Aussies went for it, but falling wickets forced them to play out time, ending the match 6/139.
India 340 (Agarwal 134, Rangaswamy 54*, Fullston 4-80) and 7 dec 235 (Agarwal 83, Banerjee 72, Jacobs 4-72, Fullston 3-81) drew with Australia 8 dec 358 (Kennare 99, Verco 78, Kulkarni 5-124, Edjuli 3-119) and 6/139