Australia v India: Women's Twenty20 World Cup opener – live!

1st over: India 2-0 (Verma 1, Mandhana 1) As Mel Jones confirms on telly, Strano has picked up Verma five times in seven attempts, the two having squared off against each other on an ‘A’ tour last year. It’s a fantastic start from the off-spinner, too. Verma is of the mark with a push but Mandhana can’t beat the field, her outside edge located and clipping Healy’s glove on the way through to short third. You wouldn’t call that a dropped catch but it is a little victory for the hosts. Just two from the over – outstanding.

Strano is also one of the most entertaining players on the circuit. As Vish hints at here, we were both part of her elaborate recreation of Shane Warne’s ball of the century with Mike Gatting at a Canterbury pub during the 2015 Women’s Ashes.

Strano to Verma it is! What a story for the Victorian spinner. PLAY!!

The players are on the field for the national anthems. Australia are huddled up, ready to get into their work. Molly Strano has an impressive record against the wunderkind Verma, so expect to see her bowling the first over. Here we go!

“Hello Sydney, welcome to the Big Dance.” Get used to this gibberish branding over the next couple of weeks. For those who aren’t from Australia, it relates to cricket inferiority complex with football. A long, weird, unnecessary story.

Thrilled to see Annabel Sutherland given the nod tonight, a true product of the system that Australia have been building with the WBBL and the WNCL. She’s a legitimate all-rounder, able to finish off innings with both the bat and the ball.

The pitch, so says Michael Clarke on the broadcast, is a belter. He declares that Sydney is the best city on earth. Each to their own, Pup. Each to their own.

We’re now getting a bit of the opening ceremony on the coverage, which was surely filmed earlier as there are a lot of empty seats as they pan around. Right?

Australia: Alyssa Healy (wk), Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Meg Lanning (c), Ellyse Perry, Rachael Haynes, Annabel Sutherland, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Molly Strano, Megan Schutt.

India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

“We’re going to bowl first and see what happens,” Meg Lanning says in her usual, casual matter-of-fact fashion. There’s a bit of rain about in Sydney, she notes.

Molly Strano is straight into the XI! She wasn’t in the squad two days ago, coming in for the injured Tayla Vlaeminck, and she’s immediately wins her chance. Wow.

Harmanpreet acknowledges that India “definitely” would have bowled as well. Full teams shortly.

This is the tough group. Make no mistake, qualification out of Group A is a lot more challenging than it is over in Group B, which begins tomorrow when the West Indies play Thailand. The loser tonight will have to overcome New Zealand later in the pool stage to guarantee progress, which is never straightforward.

For India, they are relying on the strength of their top four to pile on the pressure. Since the last time a major tournament was played in 2018, that includes 16-year-old prodigy Shafila Verma at the top of the list. Last year, at age 15, she became the youngest Indian to ever clock an international half-century. She’ll join Smriti Mandhana, on her day the most effective player in the world. They are followed by the skipper Harmanpreet, who knows all about breaking Australian hearts, then the busy Jemimah Rodrigues, who is going to strength to strength.

While we wait for the toss here’s Geoff Lemon on the journey Australian women’s cricket has been on over the last five years. And what a story it has been.