Australia captain Alyssa Healy has set her sights on their upcoming marquee clash against India in the Women’s World Cup and expressed confidence on the back of the team’s incredible depth across departments.
Defending champions Australia on Wednesday crushed Pakistan by 107 runs to register their second win in the tournament with the game against Sri Lanka washed out.
The win was achieved on the back of Beth Mooney’s magnificent hundred, her record partnership with tailender Alana King, and a dominant display by the bowlers after the team was reeling at 76/7 at one stage.
“We’ll reflect, obviously off to a new destination tomorrow and play India next. So we’ve got to sort of switch back on to a different venue and get ourselves in shape for that. Well, I mean, it’s credit to our depth. We speak a lot about it, about how everyone in our order can contribute,” Healy said after the win here.
“We speak heavily about partnerships with bat and ball and I think we’re creating partnerships probably just a little bit too late down the order. So for our top order to reflect on, if we get an opportunity to get in, we can cash in with a big score and put a big total.
“So there’s so many positives that we can take out of the couple of games we’ve played so far. So we won’t dwell on some of the errors we made tonight,” she added.
The seven-time champions will play India on Sunday in Visakapatnam, where the tournament co-hosts are taking on South Africa on Thursday.
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“We’ll get a good look at the conditions. I think they play South Africa tomorrow night. But I know there’s a few teams coming here that will probably be watching tonight, wondering what’s about to unfold in Colombo.
“So it could get interesting towards the back end over this lot. But we’ll just focus on the game at hand.” She was full of praise for Mooney, who lifted Australia to 221 for nine, a total that proved more than enough for the team on the night.
“Two points. We will move on. I think… that is probably one of the best innings I have seen her (Mooney) play. Hands down one of the best out there. At one point, we would have taken 150-160 (and tried to defend it), that we got more than 200 was a big effort.” Asked if the conditions surprised Australia, she said, “Not really. It changed dramatically from a few days before. It got quite dry. We just did not adapt quick enough and got out in similar fashion. We will learn from that, reflect.” Player of the match Mooney acknowledged that the team was in a tricky situation.
“We were obviously in a bit of a tricky situation there when I was batting towards the end. So a lot of questions from me going to the bench asking what I needed to do. But we got a couple of partners there at the end in Kim Garth and Alana King obviously to get some partnerships going.
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“I was typically dying when I got back into the changing room after the innings break. But I think the messaging from the sideline was just about trying to get a partnership going.
“Obviously we lost some wickets in clumps there through the middle. But if you’re really committed to a certain style of play and a method that sort of ended up working a little bit,” Mooney said.
This was Pakistan’s third successive defeat in the ongoing tournament, after losing to India and Bangladesh.
“We were on top after 20 overs in the first innings. After that, Beth Mooney played well and our girls’ energy came down, and we need to improve,” Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana said.
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“If you are on top in 20 overs, you need to be on top till the last ball. We need the energy (like the first 20 overs) until the last ball. The way she played, it was awesome to watch.
“We had decided to bowl because of the pitch. It was slow and turning. We know our spinners have done well. That was the main (idea),” she added.
