Alyssa Healy: Following a thrilling three-run win over hosts’ India to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the women’s ODI series, Australia skipper Alyssa Healy admitted that taking Richa Ghosh’s catch to get the batter out for 96 was a turning point which got them back in the game.
Richa, who was anchoring India’s chase of 259, was caught superbly by Phoebe Litchfield, which meant she missed her maiden ODI century by just four runs. From there, India crumbled as Australia prevailed in the end to clinch the series, with the final game on January 2 still left to be played.
“Alana King pulled some momentum back into our changeroom (but) I thought we were probably 20, 30 maybe even 40 runs short with the bat. But I think when we (got) Richa Ghosh when she was on 96, that was when probably the group thought ‘we’re on here’.”
“We could have probably caught her earlier, don’t get me wrong … but when we took that catch, we knew that the pressure was on. They were hovering around a run a ball for a really long period of time.”
“We just knew if we kept creating dot balls, kept creating pressure then chances would come and that’s exactly what this team has been really, really good at for a long period of time and we did it again tonight,” Alyssa was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au in the post-match press conference.
Though Australia dropped four catches on the field, they were helped by the fact that youngsters Phoebe, making 63 with the bat, and Annabel Sutherland stepped up to win the game for Australia. Annabel took 3-47 in nine overs and defended 16 runs off the final over against Deepti Sharma.
“It says a lot about our group, it says a lot about our domestic structure as well, and the WBBL in particular, that these girls are getting opportunities to play international-level cricket at home in Australia against the best players in the world and they get that experience.”
“It’s great and hopefully we can continue to produce more and more match winners for Australia. I’m just so proud of everyone else who seems to get a cap or get an opportunity and comes in and contributes to this side,” added Alyssa.
Annabel’s superb performance on Saturday comes after veterans Jess Jonassen and Megan Schutt, who had a quad complaint, were not playing the second ODI. 2023 has been a year where Annabel has established herself in the Australia team with her all-round skills.
“We’ve been needing probably some more death options, in the T20 game in particular, we’ve been talking about that. Schutter has done it so well for us for a long period of time, but we know that change is near and Belsy showed us tonight exactly what she could do, and I think Kim Garth, if given the opportunity, could have done something similar.”
“She’s always been an outstanding prospect and a real talent. But I think her belief in herself, and also probably some opportunities coming her way, has really given her the freedom to go out there and show everyone just how good she is,” concluded Alyssa.