Alyssa Healy reflects on Australia's victory in 1st T20I
Australia Women skipper Alyssa Healy expressed her delight with the team's clinical performance to start off the T20I series against India on a winning note.
Australia chose to chase on a belter of a surface at DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai. The hosts started off in a brilliant fashion with knocks from Smriti Mandhana(28) and Shafali Verma (22).
Jemimah Rodrigues (0) failed, while Harmanpreet Kaur (21) couldn't convert her stars to big innings. It took support from Devika Vaidya (25), and quickfire knocks from Richa Ghosh (36) and Deepti Sharma (36*) to help India post 172.
In reply, Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy provided a strong start to the visitors. The duo added 73 runs in less than nine overs before Healy (37) was sent back to the hut by Vaidya. Nevertheless, Mooney continued her brilliance with an aggressive approach, while Tahlia McGrath upped the ante after setting the eyes on the pitch as well.
Mooney (89*) and McGrath (40*) added an unbeaten stand of 100 runs to seal the game with 11 balls to spare.
After the win, Healy reckoned India were slightly below-par but thinks the bowlers need to tighten things up in the death overs. She indirectly pointed out of the Women in Blue slamming around 100 runs in last nine overs of their innings.
"Let me tell you - it wasn't that easy when we were on the field (captaincy). I thought they were below par. As per stats 185 is a par score here. We didn't finish great with the ball but we knew we were in the game. Probably will look to tidy up the death bowling and some other areas."
Both teams will meet in the second T20I on Sunday (December 11) at the same venue.
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