The Test match between Australia and India women that was recently on and being held live has now become a thing of the past. It ended just a while ago and not to the best interest of the visiting Australian team. For the first time ever, the Indian women’s team beat the Aussies fair and square.
And at the centre of the harrowing defeat there stood albeit with much grace a certain Alyssa Healy. The recently appointed captain of a cricket outfit that is about as iconic as it is legendary found herself facing the ignominy of a defeat she would loved to have avoided.
But then there can only be one winner in sport and sadly for the Australians, their skipper couldn’t hold on for a draw, which would have been the next ideal outcome in the absence of a win.
Having said that, in what are not-so-familiar scenes for the otherwise experienced Alyssa Healy, since captaincy isn’t something she had any great idea of, there seems to be a need to take cognisance of the challenge. And this is a brand new one at that.
In what was an ideal role for the great Meg Lanning, whose retirement may still hold an element of suddenness to many fans, it is expected that Alyssa Healy will bring out her A game as leader of the enterprising and world-beating Australian side sooner than any later.
However, that doesn’t mean that the blazing right hander wasn’t among any runs in this recent game that her side lost at the Wankhede. Each time she got going, and she was among the runs on both occasions with the bat, it seemed that a fifty or maybe a handy knock more than a half century was in the offing.
But it wasn’t to be.
Falling prey to a fine delivery by Deepti Sharma in the first inning, Alyssa Healy, as it turned out, didn’t cut out a big challenge to her opposite number from the Indian camp: Harmanpreet Kaur.
Being adjudged leg before on a wicket that didn’t only assist spinners but also had a thing or two for the spinners was the best thing that could’ve happened for the Indians aware of Healy’s destructive capabilities.
In which case, one of the most lethal carvers of the cricket ball getting dismissed for scores of 38 and 32, in that order, spelled dismay for the otherwise powerful bastion of excellence called the Aussies.
Just the kind of result India would’ve wanted; to curb Alyssa Healy’s free flowing assault, which is a usual theme of her batting.
But having said that, somewhere what would’ve affected the Australian captain was the very fact that this was a one-off Test match and that’s that; would’ve been wonderful from Alyssa Healy’s point of view if she’d have got a chance to put on a whack in another game.
After all, her rivals, Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh and company got some decent runs under their belt on the very wicket where Healy struggled. But then for how much longer?
The greats always comeback stronger? For how long, one reckons, can the Indian team- talented, disdainful of competition- can curb Healy? We shall soon get the answers.
