Christina Gough, Emma Bargna star as Germany trounce Austria by 82 runs

Left-handed opener Christina Gough headlined the batting effort with her 62-ball 72 before the German bowlers' combined effort skittled Austria for a mere 83 runs. Emma Bargna, the medium pacer, starred with the ball taking 3 for 13. Spinners Asmita Kohli and Milena Beresford chipped in with five wickets between them.

Austria captain won the toss and, in a surprising decision, elected to bowl. German openers Janet Ronalds and Gough began cautiously with Austria's opening bowlers, Valentina Avdylaj and Andrea Mae Zepeda, bowling tight line around the off stump. Ronalds was dropped twice in the fourth over off Zepeda at square leg.

Gough looked assured and hit the first boundary of the match in the sixth over when she pulled Zepeda to square leg. Jo Antoinette Stiglitz got couple of deliveries to go across the left-hander, but struggled with her length and ended up bowling a couple of full tosses which went for fours with the openers preferring to hit everything through the leg side. The pair brought up the fifty partnership from 43 balls.

Gough kept peppering the bowling through the square leg and mid-wicket hitting three boundaries in the next two overs. Almost against the run of play Ronalds picked out Priya Sabu at mid-wicket off Rezarta Avdylaj’s first over to end the 75-run opening partnership.

Skipper Anuradha Doddaballapur joined Gough and took the score to 100 in the first ball of the 14^th over with the help of a couple of boundaries along the ground. Gough reached her fifty with a couple through the leg side in the same over. The score was already 131 when she hit a dragged down delivery from Sylvia Kailath straight to Zepeda at deep mid-wicket. Gough’s 62-ball 72 included nine hits to the fence.

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Doddaballapur opened up in the final few overs hitting three boundaries in the last six balls she faced to take the score to 165 in the allotted 20 overs. She finished unbeaten on 40 off 30 deliveries.

The target always seemed an uphill task for the Austrians and they got off to a terrible start with Bushra UCA dragging Bargna onto the stumps on the first ball she faced. Her opening partner, Harjivan Bhullar, joined her in the next over when she was trapped in front of the stumps trying to play across a straight delivery. Austria struggled to gain any momentum with Bargna and the left-arm seam bowling of Gough, keeping the line straight and could only score 20 runs from the power play.

Things turned from bad to worse for the hosts when the off-spinners, Kohli and Beresford, combined to take out the middle order to reduce them to 43 for 6. They kept bowling full and had the Austria batters in a spot. Doddaballapur kept the field up, denying Austria a chance to rotate the strike.

Captain Zepeda (35 not out) looked the best batter from the Austria side but was content to play out the overs. Even though she opened up to hit a couple of boundaries in the end it was just an inevitable end as she was stranded with the side getting bowled out for 83 in the 19^th over.

Brief Scores: Germany 165/2 in 20 overs (Christina Gough 72, Anuradha Doddaballapur 40*, Rezarta Avdylaj 1/17) beat Austria 83 all out in 19 overs (Andrea Mae Zepeda 35*, Emma Bargna 3-13, Asmita Kohli 3-18) by 82 runs.

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