Alyssa Healy and Harmanpreet Kaur clash as ugly drama erupts in women's cricket Test

There were fiery scenes on the third day of the women's cricket Test in Mumbai on Saturday when rival captains Alyssa Healy and Harmanpreet Kaur clashed late in the day. Harmanpreet claimed two key wickets to slow an Aussie fightback, including the prized scalp of Healy.

But the India captain came under fire over her actions immediately preceding the Healy wicket after she threw the ball straight at the Aussie batter. Healy had come down the track and driven the ball straight back to Kaur, who picked it up and fired it straight back towards Healy's upper body.

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The Aussie captain, who had made it back into her crease, put her bat up to protect herself and deflected the ball to the boundary. Harmanpreet appealed to the umpire for 'obstructing the field', but because Healy was simply protecting herself she was awarded four runs.

However the incident seemed to rattle her and she produced a big sweep-shot on the very next ball, only to miss it and have it cannon into her pad right in front of the stumps. Healy was given out lbw and a DRS review sealed her fate, with Harmanpreet having the last laugh.

Australia finished the day at 5-233, holding a precarious 46-run lead with one day to play in the first Test between the two nations in India since 1984. Tahlia McGrath made 73 and anchored Australia's second-innings fightback, sharing in strong partnerships of 84 with Ellyse Perry (who made 45) and 66 with Healy (32).

But Harmanpreet struck twice in the third session, finishing with 2-23 to turn the game back in India's favour. "We had a pretty big deficit to make up so we're not where we'd like to be, but I thought today our batting was more what we want it to be," Australia coach Shelley Nitschke said.

"Tahlia McGrath in both innings was outstanding and applied herself well. If we get up to 150-200 (run lead), we're right in this game. We know how well they bat in their home conditions and we still have to bowl really well if we can put a target on the board."

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After only lasting two balls in the first innings, Perry was back in fine touch before tickling off-spinner Snesh Rana down leg-side to wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia shortly before tea. New vice-captain McGrath, who made 50 off 56 balls in the first dig, made it back-to-back half-centuries with a more measured knock of 73 off 177 balls.

She survived two incorrect lbw decisions - given out twice but both overturned on review - the second of which came on Harmanpreet's first delivery of the match. But three balls later she was gone after inside-edging the India captain onto her stumps.

Annabel Sutherland (12 not out at stumps) survived two confident lbw shouts before getting off the mark, going to stumps unbeaten alongside Ash Gardner (seven). The partnership between McGrath and Perry came after Australia lost both their openers in ugly fashion.

Beth Mooney made 37 but was runout in comical fashion when she played the ball to Richa Ghosh at silly point and wandered out of her crease. Ghosh then threw down the stumps as Mooney showed a complete lack of awareness and was way out of her ground. Phoebe Litchfield was then bowled for 18 while attempting to reverse-sweep Rana.

with AAP

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