They might have recorded a narrow three-run win over India in the second ODI but Australia Women’s captain Alyssa Healy said the visitors were not prepared for a spin-friendly pitch and will need to revisit their plans ahead of the third game.
Indian spinner Deepti Sharma returned with figures of 10-0-38-5 to peg Australia back as they slipped from 117 for 1 to 258 for 8 after batting first. Things could have been different if the home team had not dropped as many as seven catches.
Healy said Australia will have to consider more scoring options if turn is going to be a huge factor in the third and final ODI as well.
“We probably weren’t as prepared for how much turn there was,” Healy told the media here after the match.
“Early (before the game), we spoke about it, that maybe there was going to be a little bit, but probably (now) just need to chat a little bit about that if they’re going to prepare something really similar for game three.
“We just probably need to work out a few more different scoring areas for ourselves and obviously probably our attack as well (in regards to) what we can do to cash in on.” The third ODI is scheduled on January 2 at the Wankhede Stadium.
Having recorded their ninth ODI series win in India and her first as full-time captain, Healy said it was a statistic that did not bother the team much.
“Not really. I mean, that statistic doesn’t bother us too much. (It) feels like people only write about us when we lose anyway. So there might have been a good thing, but that’s not on the mind at all,” Healy said.
“We’re fully aware of just how good this opposition is that we’re playing against and we know we’ve got to be able to be on the mark to maintain that.” The Australian captain said her side was at least 40 runs short but a quickfire 28 not out from 17 balls from Alana King, in which she was dropped twice, tilted the momentum in their favour.
“King got some momentum back into our change room. I thought we were probably 20-30 or maybe 40 runs short with the bat. I thought we’d let ourselves down a little bit (by) just losing wickets at bad times.
“(We) probably let India back in the game and in that regard, and probably needed at least to add on that we could, even though it was difficult conditions,” she said.
Healy said dismissing Richa Ghosh and 96 with Phoebe Litchfield taking a fine catch was perhaps a turning point in the game.
“When we we hung on to Richa Ghosh when she was on 96, that was when probably the group thought ‘we’re on here’. I think we could have probably caught her earlier,” she said.
Ghosh made the most of the two lifelines which she got on nought (dropped by Litchfield) and 36 (dropped by Annabel Sutherland) to make her highest individual score in ODI cricket so far.
“They were hovering around 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 yeah, that’s exactly what the this team has been really, really good at for a long period of time. We did it again,” Healy said.
Healy, who is yet to record a big knock for herself on this tour, said she was happy to be back on the field after a long injury (finger) layoff and is not burdened by captaincy pressure.
“I’ve also missed eight weeks of cricket leading into this, so this is my first series back from a fairly significant injury. In that regard, the captaincy is weighing on me at all,” she said. “I’m just excited to be back out here playing cricket, to be completely honest with you, and the captaincy is just a side part of that.”
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