Megan Schutt gets the right mix of ingredients to blow India away

An ‘ugly action’, yoga with puppies, oodles of experience and a dash of spunk- it’s an odd concoction coming together for a bowler to take a match-winning fifer in a big win. Ask Megan Schutt.

Under a cloudy sky with a golden sun peeping out in patches, Schutt’s pace pack made life hard for India, bowling the visitor out for just 100 in under 34 overs which set the tone for a massive six-wicket win with 202 balls to spare at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Thursday.

India opted to bat, a toss Australia was happy to lose. The 31-year-old Schutt gave the host a dream start accounting for both Indian openers – Priya Punia (who had taken a dropped Shafali Verma’s spot) and Smriti Mandhana – to leave India reeling at 19/2 in the seventh over.

She generated plenty of swing early on from a track primed for pace bowling with Kim Garth holding down the other end of the fort in the PowerPlay. The Indian top and middle order found it difficult to read her line and length, producing generous edges for most part of their short stint at the crease.

“I finally got some reward with Kim doing all the hard yards at the other end. Honestly, I thought I was a bit wayward early, I didn’t feel at my best, but got a couple of wickets there and finished up at the end.,” a content Schutt said after picking up her first ODI fifer.

Schutt preferred complementing her full length outswingers with the odd short ball that arched in to keep the Indian batters guessing. Garth got the ball to move late and added bounce kept the runflow in check.

Schutt famously called her action ‘ugly’ during the previous edition of the Women’s Big Bash League.

“You’ll see some pretty iconic images of Ellyse Perry being perfectly upright and what not while bowling. Not me. Not only do I go wide, but I also pull (my right arm) across. I do this to pull myself back that way to move my arm inward. It doesn’t look pretty and probably a lot of people don’t want to emulate that, but it helps me come across and makes me pull down to my right side rather than my left, which means the ball’s going to come in,” she was quoted as saying.

After the fifer on Thursday, the experienced quick spoke about constantly layering her bowling process.

“I’m trying to add some strings to my bow here and there because I feel predictable inswingers gets a bit easy to play but yeah, as long as the body holds up for a few more years, I’ll be alright,” she explained.

Ugly or otherwise, Schutt was effective, as she has been for most part of the year. She had a good run at the Women’s T20 World Cup, picked up steam for the Adelaide Strikers in the WBBL even in a torrid campaign and has made a big statement of intent with this showing against India in the first match of the international summer.

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With the wind blowing in from the Northern End which Schutt commanded, India struggled to get behind the line of the ball. But the real clincher was the vacuum seal on the runs. In 34.2 overs, India played out 146 dots in the 206-ball lifespan of its innings. 32 of the runs scored came through boundaries. Australia, courtesy the solidity of debutant Georgia Voll’s unbeaten 46, chased the ask down in just 16.2 overs (98 balls) of which 57 were dots. 16 boundaries and two sixes were hit too by the girls in yellow and green (76 runs of the 102 eventually scored).

Schutt gave away just 19 runs in her 6.2 overs, despite the ball’s speed and movement sometimes taking it past the fielders too. Perry, who gave away 13 runs in her three-over quota, was the most expensive on the day.

All this is good news for Aussie head coach Shelly Nitschke who came into this game with plenty of creases lining her forehead. Full-time skipper Alyssa Healy finds herself out of action due to a knee injury but is spending time recovering with the group. She will sleep well after seeing the immediate returns come through on the side’s faith in Georgia Voll, whose bat sang the loudest in Brisbane.

Georgia Voll of Australia leaves the field after scoring a 42-ball 46.
| Photo Credit:
Chris Hyde/Getty Images

“We speak a lot about our domestic program, that it’s the strongest in the world and we truly believe that. This just proves it,” Schutt said of the young Queenslander.

“Had there been more runs out there, I am sure Volly would have made at least a half-century. It’s great news that we know when we pull the plug, there’s someone to replace us.”

It helped that the players, congregating days after an intense season of the WBBL, were surprised with a session of paw-ga. The shaggy little pups were a big hit with a side that last played an ODI in March this year.

“Yes, I think that was a very cool surprise. We all had no idea what was going on, and I reckon there were tears of joy in that room.If we can get it organised every week, we’d be pretty stoked with that,” she quipped.

Australia will hope to channel the same energy when the teams return to the Allan Border Field for the second iteration of the series. Conditions are expected to be the same for the side and Schutt expects an encore of the same drill.

“To bat first was a pretty courageous decision from them. I believe we’re on the same pitch (on Sunday), so I think it will play pretty similarly. It’s not often that you bowl teams out for 100 two times in a row. They’ll have their plans and we’ll just have to adjust our plans for even longer,” she added.