Mackay (Australia), Aug 14 (PTI) – Huge half-centuries from midfielders Raghvi Bist and Tejal Hasabnis went in vain as India Women lost their opening one-day match against Australia A by four wickets, with Katie Mack scoring a century for the winner here on Wednesday.

It was India A's fourth consecutive defeat on their tour of Australia after a 0-3 win in the T20 series in Brisbane.

Also Read | Who is Melati Walia? From “boom deejae” to “dum dee dee dum”; Check out the best songs of boyfriend and singer Hardik Pandya!

After India set themselves a modest victory target of 250 runs, thanks to Tejal scoring 53 runs (67 balls, 7 × 4) and Raghvi scoring 82 runs (102 balls, 6 × 4), they were frustrated by Australia's Katie opening the match by scoring 129 runs (126 balls, 11 × 4).

Katie enjoyed productive half-century partnerships with fellow openers Maddy Darke (27) and Charlie Knott (26) and a century with captain Talia McGrath (56) as Australia easily won the first match of the three-match one-day series.

Also Read | Former Indian cricketer Doda Ganesh has been appointed as the head coach of the Kenya cricket team.

Indian ace bowler Meghna Singh (2/43) and off-spinner Minu Mani (2/53) took two wickets each.

With few senior players in the squad, India got off to a rocky start, losing openers Shweta Sehrawat (1) and Priya Punia (6) cheaply. At 56/3, India A were in trouble but Tejal and Raghvi, making their debut for the country, put together a 55-run partnership to take the visitors past the hundred mark.

Raghvi also shared half-centuries with skipper Mani and Shipra Giri (25, not out) as he gave the visitors a decent run to defend.

Short results:

India 249 for 9 off 50 overs (Tejal Hasabnis 53, Raghvi Best 82; Nicola Hancock 2/40, Maitlan Brown 23/4, Grace Parsons 2/40).

Australia 250 for 6 in 47 innings (Katie Mack 129, Talia McGrath 56; Meghna Singh 2/43, Minu Mani 2/53).

(This is an unedited, auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, the Latest team cannot alter or edit the content text)