The India women’s team defeated Australia in a one-off encounter in Mumbai on Sunday, defeating Alyssa Healy’s side by 8 wickets at the famous Wankhede Stadium. The feat wrapped off India Women’s first ‘home season’ of Test cricket in 28 years, given that they had also defeated England by 347 runs earlier this month in another one-off Test before the victory over Australia. Alyssa Healy’s team could only set the hosts a target of 75 runs at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday after losing 7-55 to conclude their second innings. After Shafali Verma was out for four in the opening over, India recovered to chase down the mark and won with easy ease.
India Women’s Cricket team maintained their commitment to playing “positive cricket,” persevered through all little setbacks, and essentially set the terms when playing against highly-regarded teams in Australia and England. Considering they were playing at home for the first time in over a decade, there was little difference in Team India’s clinical performance in the two home Test matches against England played on separate surfaces here at the Wankhede Stadium and the DY Patil Stadium.
“They’re not easy to win over here, we found that out. We’d love to play a couple more to make it interesting,” Healy said. “At the end of the day, we had one bad day on the first day, but the rest of the time we showed a lot of fight, so – proud of the effort. It’s our first opportunity to play red-ball cricket over here. So we are learning on our feet.”
SPIRIT OF GAME
Even though Australia lost badly, skipper Healy made a kind gesture when she took out her camera and began recording the Indian team’s joyous moments after the award ceremony. A short clip of Healy taking images of Team India players celebrating their victory was shared by Cricket Australia. Healy discussed it during the post-match presentation. The Australian captain said that the camera crew was being pushed aside, so she grabbed one of the cameras and began to record the events that would win.
“It wasn’t my camera, they were pushing the cameramen back. So, I thought I would allow one of them to get them nice and close. But I cut out half of the team by accident, so I don’t think they would be using that one!” Healy stated.
The shot captured the spirit of cricket, defying national boundaries and demonstrating the simple joy of the game. Fans on both sides lauded Healy’s sportsmanship.
Sneh Rana won the Player of the Match (POTM) award for her brilliant bowling performance, which resulted in a match total of 7/119. She was rewarded for her inquisitive line and length, as her off-spin prevented the Australian batsmen from settling down at any point during the game. With her skillful utilization of the buy from the wicket, Rana choked the visitors with her complexly constructed web.
