Australia captain Alyssa Healy still ‘haunted’ by loss to India, didn't watch World Cup final

Speaking on the Willow Talk Cricket podcast with former wicketkeeper-batter Brad Haddin, Healy reflected on what went wrong for her side and how the loss has lingered despite Australia’s otherwise dominant run through the tournament.

“Look, I’ve been better. I won’t lie to you. But at the same time, it is what it is. End of the day that, after seven weeks of a big long tour, we played some really really incredible cricket but didn’t quite get over a certain Indian hurdle, I suppose you’d say,” Healy said. “So, disappointing in that regard, but I’m looking forward to seeing what this team can do over this next cycle because it’s really exciting.”

“(We are) playing some amazing cricket and teams are having to keep up to knock us off, which I think is really cool. Obviously, I haven’t watched the final, but India got themselves over the line, which is really cool, and it’s great for the global game. So, from that perspective, it was an amazing experience, but obviously sitting here a little bit disappointed, and it’ll haunt me for a little while that one, but that’s ok.”

Riding on a maiden World Cup century from Phoebe Litchfield, Australia had posted a formidable 338 in the semi-final, but Healy felt they had left runs on the field. “Actually thought it was under-par,” she conceded. “I thought Ash Gardner played an unbelievable knock to sort of get us back up to that total, but I actually think we left a few out there towards the end. I think at one point we would have taken 330. We lost a few wickets towards the back end, but then, probably, the way that we’d set up the game, I think when Pez and Phoebe were in there looking really good with their partnership, we were looking at 350 plus. If we could have pushed up over 350, ultimately it might have made a difference in the end.”

Reflecting on the tournament as a whole, Healy said the defeat hurt more because of the level of cricket her side played throughout. “That’s probably why it – I know we’ll probably get to it later and you’ll probably make me cry at some point – but that’s probably what makes it hurt more is that we’re playing so well. Everyone was contributing. Everyone was playing out of their skin which I thought was unbelievable and we had sort of half an off night and get done in a knockout game. One to reflect on, yeah, the team’s flying at the moment which is pretty cool but sad we don’t have a trophy to show for it,” she said.

Healy also discussed the conditions during India’s record chase, particularly how the red soil at DY Patil Stadium played differently under lights. “The red soil at DY Patil there, it generally doesn’t let the dew affect it as much. I think the wicket definitely started a little slower than what we’d been used to. Played on black soil basically the whole World Cup leading into that fixture and the red soil probably was a little bit slower off the surface early on than what we had been used to. It definitely looked like under lights towards the back end, you know, it was sliding on nicely,” Healy explained.

“I think we probably didn’t help ourselves in that regard as well. We probably weren’t quick enough to adapt to bowling a change of pace. It did rain a little bit. Probably made it slide on a little bit more as well, but we just sort of missed a little bit with the ball at the back end and but like I said, we created opportunities throughout our fielding innings to defend that total and get key wickets along the way, but we just weren’t able to capitalise on that. and that’s what you’ve got to do in knockout fixtures in World Cups and that’s traditionally what Australia have done really well in the past. So, yeah, a little bit disappointing in that regard,” she said.

Two crucial moments in the Indian innings came when Jemimah Rodrigues was dropped on either side of her century, with both Healy and Tahlia McGrath unable to hold on to chances that could have shifted the game’s momentum. Jemimah was unbeaten on 127 as India reached home with more than an over to spare.

Healy’s own dismissal earlier in the day was another moment she recalled vividly, especially the chaos caused by lighting issues and rain interruptions. “You know when you get a bad feeling? I was actually thinking to myself, I think I should just wait a little bit longer because we’re going to go off. I think I should just wait. But I’d already waited because we had a three-minute wait and the lights were meant to go on in the break. And then I said to the umpire, are they going to come on mid ball? Like, should we wait for them to come on? And she’s like, they’ve told us at the end of the over. So, as I was set up, ready to go and the bowler was about to run in, the lights went on. Well, one of the lights went on. So, then we had to wait for all of the lights to flick on,” Healy said.

“At the other end, people were walking in front of the sightscreen. There was just a lot of chaos around, which is sometimes what happens over in India. There are just people everywhere doing different jobs around the ground, and it was really frustrating. If I’d have waited a minute longer, we would have been off the field and then we come back on and have another crack at it.”

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