Alyssa Healy betrayed a smile. “Yes, there was a little bit of revenge,” she said, shortly after Australia crushed India by 97 runs in the final ODI at the Reliance Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.
The Aussies won the series 3-0, which also helped them regain the No. 1 ranking. And the revenge Healy was referring to — for the shocking loss to India at the World Cup eight months ago in England — couldn’t have been more complete.
That wasn’t the only reason for her to smile, though. The wicket-keeping opener had scored her maiden international hundred to help Australia put up its biggest ever total against India.
It was a terrific innings too, as the niece of former Australian ‘keeper Ian Healy, hit 133 from just 115 balls (17x4, 2x6).
She would, however, be grateful to the Indian fielders, in particular to Mona Meshram, who dropped her twice. And those weren’t the only catches that went begging in the Australian innings.
When you don’t take the chances offered by this mighty batting line-up, you could very well end up chasing a target that has never been achieved before.
That was what happened, as Australia posted 332 for seven, after winning the toss.
The visitors did that despite the first failure of the series from the left-handed opener Nicole Bolton, who began the match with an average of 185. She was smartly caught on her own bowling by left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht.
Barely five overs later, Australia lost its second wicket, at 64, as captain Meg Lanning was taken well in the covers by her Indian counterpart Mithali Raj off Deepti Sharma, who opened the bowling with her off-spin.
But, Healy found two ideal partners in Ellyse Perry and Rachel Haynes as she added 79 and 96 with them for the third and fourth wickets respectively.
Then cameos from Beth Mooney (34, 19b) and Ashleigh Gardner (35, 20b) took Australia well past 300, which also meant India would not just be chasing an unlikely target, but a world record as well.
The newly-formed opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues, however, were in no mood to go down without a fight.
They gave the vociferous, holiday crowd plenty to cheer about with their sweetly timed strokes and added 101 in a little over 13 overs.
But once Jemimah (42, 41b, 74) and Smriti (52, 42b, 10x4) fell off successive balls to the off-spin of Gardner, what was an uphill task became impossible as India failed to even use up its 50 overs.
The scores:
Australia: N. Bolton c & b Ekta 11, A. Healy c sub b Poonam 133, M. Lanning c Mithali b Deepti 18, E. Perry c Sushma b Shikha 32, R. Haynes (run out) 43, B. Mooney (not out) 34, A. Gardner c Poonam b Harmanpreet 35, N. Carey b Harmanpreet 17; Extras (b-1, lb-3, w-5): 9; Total (for seven wkts. in 50 overs): 332.
Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-64, 3-143, 4-239, 5-242, 6-285, 7-332.
India bowling: Shikha 9-0-61-1, Deepti 10-1-50-1, Ekta 7.3-0-38-1, Pooja 5-0-44-0, Poonam 10-0-54-1, Harmanpreet 5.3-0-51-2, Mona 2-0-25-0, Jemimah 1-0-5-0.
India: Jemimah c Haynes b Gardner 42, Smriti lbw b Gardner 52, Mithali c Haynes b Jonassen 21, Harmanpreet c Healy b Carey 25, Deepti b E. Perry 36, Mona c Carey b Gardner 1, Sushma c Lanning b Schutt 30, Pooja c Carey b Schutt 6, Shikha c Healy b E. Perry 0, Poonam (not out) 7, Ekta (absent hurt); Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-12): 15; Total (in 44.4 overs): 235.
Fall of wickets: 1-101, 2-101, 3-147, 4-179, 5-182, 6-221, 7-221, 8-221, 9-235.
Australia bowling: Schutt 9.4-0-54-2, Gardner 8-0-40-3, Jonassen 10-0-40-1, E. Perry 9-1-40-2, Carey 5-0-34-1, Wellington 3-0-24-0.
Toss: Australia.
Player-of-the-Match: Alyssa Healy. Player-of-the-Series: Nicole Bolton.
Australia wins by 97 runs and takes series 3-0.
