By: Express News ServiceOctober 13, 2025 04:51 PM IST 5 min readAustralia's captain Alyssa Healy bats during the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup match between India and Australia at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, India, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)Australia captain Alyssa Healy hadn’t been in the best of form coming into the tournament. Her numbers in a high-scoring bilateral series against India last month read: 27, 9 and 30. She was dismissed by India pacer Kranti Gaud on all three occasions. Against New Zealand and Pakistan, she managed just 19 and 20, getting dismissed in the powerplay both times. But, as she almost always does, Healy brought out her best at a World Cup match against India, arguably her favourite opponents.Speaking after the match in the press conference, the player of the match said that she especially enjoyed the contest against pacer Gaud and it felt good to deliver after having struggled for rhythm in the nets.“If you’ve been watching me in the nets, it’s been a frustrating experience because I feel like I’ve had no rhythm whatsoever, been struggling to find it, and I didn’t really know where it went before I came into the World Cup,” Healy said. “But I think once you step out on the field, your competitive instincts kick in and you kind of just lock into getting in the contest. Obviously aware that Kranti had got me out a fair bit throughout the ODI series, so an opportunity to go out there and lock in a contest with her and just sort of, I don’t know, have a bit of fun in that regard, I think sort of got me going and that was really a really enjoyable experience. And like I said, it was my day today, and hopefully it continues but if not, I’m sure it’ll be someone else’s, which is cool.”Right from the start, Healy targetted India’s pacers and her tactical takedown of the Indian bowling unit was a masterclass in pacing a run-chase, never letting the required rate get out of hand despite chasing 331, which ended up being a world record in women’s ODIs. Healy said that there wasn’t a particular plan to target certain bowlers but they had to play safe against Sree Charani, who was India’s best bowler on the night.“I think Charani was actually getting quite a bit of spin, the left-arm spinner. She was actually kind of the pick of the bowlers today and I think we identified that really well and thought if we could capitalize on some of the pace bowlers then that would be handy, knowing they’ve only really got five bowlers in their attack. Obviously Harman bowled an over today, so yeah, we thought if we could attack that that would be great. But it wasn’t really a plan as such. It just sort of panned out that way on the day and I think with the wicket sliding on, it probably enabled us to do that,” Healy said.The skipper also praised the bowling unit for restricting India to 330 as at one stage it looked like the total could be much more.‘To be completely honest with you, I think maybe after 8 – 9 overs with the ball in hand, I thought: ‘oh, what have I done?’ Thinking we’re going to be chasing a big total. The two openers looked really set. I thought we did really well to hang in there with the ball, oddly to restrict them to 330, which sounds a little bit crazy, but that’s the way it is. But I thought the wicket played beautifully. We played it to our strengths, I think early, which is straight back down the ground. They bowled quite straight. We played straight, trying to limit our dismissals in that regard and we’re able to pull off something pretty special,” the 35-year-old said.Story continues below this adAnnabel Sutherland was Australia’s best bowler on the night, perhaps even bowled the best spell of the tournament so far, given how good the conditions were for batting, finishing with figures of 5/40. She bowled a few variations of slower deliveries, and her change of pace proved critical in producing breakthroughs that halted India’s charge. Asked if she was able to pick up Sutherland’s variations as the wicketkeeper, Healy joked: “Yeah, apart from the one went straight between my legs.” That ball hit the helmet and India got five extra runs. But Healy was full of praise for the pacer.” Bellsy’s spell, I think we got our length right in that department. I think we bowled a little bit poorly at times and probably gave India an opportunity to cash in. Whether that be at the start of the over or the end of the over, and I think we couldn’t really create a lot of pressure. But I think Alana King and Annabel Sutherland actually created a little bit of a partnership there. Created some pressure, created some opportunities, and then Bellsy sort of cashed in at her end. So that was really cool. And I thought the bowling unit as a whole really hung in there, hung tough and created a whole heap in that back 10 to, like I said, restrict them in a way to 330, which is a little bit daunting, but I think did a great job at the back end, which was cool.”Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd