England Women captain Heather Knight was all praise for Australian opener Alyssa Healy after she scored a match-winning knock of 170 runs in the final of the ICC Women World Cup at the Hagley Oval on Sunday as Australia won their seventh title. Healy’s knock was a masterpiece as she brought her best when it mattered the most.
The veteran right-hander scored her runs off just 138 balls as she scored 26 fours in her incredible knock. Thus, she played a key role in helping her team post a gargantuan total of 356 runs on the board after Heather Knight won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Healy added 160 runs for the opening stand with Rachael Haynes, who continued her good form to score 68 runs. Subsequently, Healy added another huge partnership of 154 runs with Beth Mooney for the second wicket. Healy scored her runs at a strike rate of 123.19 as she batted at the top of her game. Furthermore, Mooney scored 62 runs for Australia.
Heather Knight said in the post-match presentation, “Probably it was a 50-50 decision at the toss, but credit to Australia to bring that sort of performance in a World Cup final. Alyssa, that was a remarkable innings and not really a pleasure to watch but it is one of the best innings I’ve seen live. I guess we didn’t find an answer and it was an amazing wicket and really hard to defend and if we had kept them to just about 300 which would have been par then we were in with a good chance of chasing it down.”
On the other hand, Natalie Sciver scored a magnum opus knock of unbeaten 148 runs but she couldn’t find support from the other end as none of the other batters could even cross the 30-run mark.
Knight feels they had to take a few more risks as they were chasing a huge total. However, the England skipper was proud of her team’s effort throughout the tournament.
She added, “From Nat, the skill against spin and pace scoring all-round the ground and it is unfortunate we couldn’t have someone to stay with her, guess the runs on the board forced us to take few more risks and we couldn’t have that big partnership and I think that is something Australia do outstandingly and so we could learn from that, on how they take the game away from the opposition after getting set. Super proud of the group. We managed to turn things around and in with a shot of winning the World Cup, ultimately got beaten in the final. Some of the players have been outstanding in the group and special mention to Sophie Ecclestone, leading wicket-taker and most wickets in a World Cup ever I guess and seeing those younger players perform gives me real pleasure and they can certainly be proud of themselves. Want to thank the staff and lovely to see the big crowd tonight.”
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