Alyssa Healy identifies Richa Ghosh’s dismissal as turning point in second ODI

Batting first, Australia posted 258 runs on board in the second ODI of the series at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Skipper Alyssa Healy mentioned she felt that the visitors made 30-40 runs short but the team eventually registered a three-run victory in a nail-biting classic. When it came to the chase, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side started well as batting at number three, Richa Ghosh gave them the much-needed momentum.

The 20-year-old missed her century by just four runs as she made 96 before falling prey to Annabel Sutherland. She stitched an important 88-run partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues which kept India in the hunt but once Richa went back to the pavilion, the wickets fell like a house of cards. Healy too identified the importance of Richa’s wicket and mentioned that it was the turning point in the game.

"I thought we were probably 20, 30 maybe even 40 runs short with the bat. But I think when we (got) Richa Ghosh when she was on 96, that was when probably the group thought ‘we’re on here’. We could have probably caught her earlier, don’t get me wrong… but when we took that catch, we knew that the pressure was on. They were hovering around a 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 that’s exactly what this team has been really, really good at for a long period of time and we did it again tonight,” Healy was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au.

Hopefully, we can continue to produce more and more match winners: Healy

Youngster Phoebe Litchfield was adjudged as Player of the Match in the first ODI and in the second match, she once again scored a half-century, which helped Australia set the momentum. 22-year-old Sutherland was impressive as well as she picked up three wickets. Speaking about the youngsters, Healy stated that she is impressed and hopes the country to produce more match winners.

“It says a lot about our group, it says a lot about our domestic structure as well, and the WBBL in particular, that these girls are getting opportunities to play international-level cricket at home in Australia against the best players in the world and they get that experience. It’s great and hopefully, we can continue to produce more and more match winners for Australia,” Healy added.