AUS-W vs IND-W, 3rd ODI: Healy sinks India with stunning 158 in farewell match

Match Overview

Australia and India faced off in the third women’s ODI of the three-match series at Hobart's Bellerive Oval on March 1. India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to field first. 

Alyssa Healy notched up a dream performance in what was her final innings, smashing a whopping 158 off just 98 balls with 27 fours and two sixes to light up the Bellerive Oval. While Healy was the undisputed showstopper, Beth Mooney smashed an unbeaten century of her own (106* off 84) to propel Australia to a ginormous 409 for 7.

Healy, who walked to the middle after receiving a guard of honour from Harmanpreet Kaur and Co., took some time to get going, playing a maiden off Renuka Thakur before pulling Kashvee Gautam for a four to find her rhythm.

She did not look back from there, unfurling her wide array of strokes to leave India’s hapless bowling attack clueless. Both Healy and Mooney were particularly severe against the left-arm spin of Sree Charani, who returned with ominous figures of 106 for 2 in her quota.

Healy reached her half-century off 49 balls, but accelerated to convert that into a 79-ball century. Her next 50 came at an even more rampant pace, taking only 16 more balls to reach from 100 to 150, becoming only the second Australian woman to score two 150-plus scores in ODIs.

Healy was involved in two century stands after Australia lost Phoebe Litchfield early, adding 104 off 91 for the second wicket with Georgia Voll, who was the aggressor with a 52-ball 62 before holing out to long on, and then a morale-crushing 145 off 92 with fellow centurion Mooney for the third.

It was a rather anticlimactic end to Healy’s innings, as she made a meal while attempting a reverse paddle sweep off a Sneh Rana full toss to see her stumps disturbed, walking back to a standing ovation.

From that point, Mooney took it on herself, accelerating ruthlessly to bring up her sixth ODI century off 82 balls, including 10 fours and a six. She was well supported by Nicola Carey, who slammed an unbeaten 34 off just 15 balls with four fours and a solitary six, adding 54 in just 25 balls for the eighth wicket after Deepti Sharma and Renuka sent back Annabel Sutherland and Ashleigh Gardner, while Charani managed two consolation strikes in Tahlia McGrath and Georgia Wareham in a double wicket over.

Deepti and Gautam conceded 90 and 83 respectively for a wicket apiece, while Renuka and Sneh Rana shared three wickets.

In response, India played positively despite Nicola Carey having Smriti Mandhana caught for a four-ball duck in the second over. Pratika Rawal and Jemimah Rodrigues joined hands in a counter-attacking 54-run stand for the second wicket, but Sutherland pinned Rawal (27 off 21) lbw while Gardner sent back Rodrigues (42 off 29) soon afterwards to push India on the backfoot, with leg-spinner Alana King (4 for 33) taking the charge in the middle-overs.

Harleen Deol struggled to get her timing right, and her scratchy, boundaryless 26-ball 14 ended in a run-out before King ran through the middle order, dismissing Harmanpreet (25 off 33) lbw and then Richa Ghosh and Gautam in the same over. Rana (44 off 74) and Deepti (29 off 47) delayed the inevitable, finding the occasional boundary in a 63-run stand for the eighth wicket, but King struck again to remove the latter lbw before Gardner cleaned up the tail with wickets in consecutive overs, restricting India 185 runs short.

With this, the hosts completed a 3-0 sweep in the ODI leg to take an unassailable 8-4 lead in the multi-format series.

Top run-scorer of the match

Top wicket-taker of the match

Player of the match

Alyssa Healy

Healy scripted a farewell of the highest order, notching up her eighth century and recording the highest-ever score in a women's ODI on Australian soil. Her 158 was also the highest score against India in the format. 

What the captains said

Winning Team Captain, Alyssa Healy (AUS-W)

(Which was more fun - scoring 158 or bowling?) Oh, bowling for sure. It didn't take much to get talked into either. I heard my name mentioned once and I said righto, but just to finish the ODI leg the way we did, yeah makes me really proud. And looking forward to heading to the WACA now and get stuck into the pink ball. I just think what a ridiculous sport we play that it can kick you down to so many times and then give you opportunities like it has today. I've hated every milestone match, so today was just an opportunity to go out and enjoy it. And it was, one of the more enjoyable experiences I've had. So, thanks for the cricket gods for that. And yeah, that's a nice way to sign off in the yellow. Beth Mooney's been outstanding. The future's bright for our team. I'm looking forward to watching them go about their business over the next couple of years leading into that next one-day World Cup. I think they're going to do some fantastic things yet again.

Losing Team Captain, Harmanpreet Kaur (IND-W)  

I think overall we didn't play good cricket. In T20, we were doing all the things right and in ODI, we didn't play good cricket. I think that that is something which cost us. ODI is, it's a long game and you have to keep doing the right things again and again. I think we kept making too many mistakes. And credit goes to the Australian team also, they really played good cricket, and they didn't give us a chance to bounce back. But I think a lot of learnings for us and definitely we will go back and think how we have to go about in the ODI cricket. Keeping everybody in good space of mind, I think that is something which is very important. I know we have very less time to prepare for us but I think now it's only about believing in yourself and keeping yourself a good frame of mind and doing the right thing for the team.