For the first time since the T20 World Cup began in 2009, Australia failed to reach the final of a consecutive ICC tournament.
Alyssa Healy summed it up best when describing Australia’s crushing defeat to India in the World Cup semi-final. “Un-Australian,” she called it. The word rang true, because it was true in more ways than one. The seven-time champions piled up 338 runs on the big stage, yet somehow fell behind, a strange decline setting them up for dominance after Phoebe Litchfield’s brilliant century.
With the ball, the lines moved. Many balls, including the one that dismissed Smriti Mandhana, drifted down the leg side. The most surprising thing was that the field lacked the ‘clutch gene’. Healy and later Tahlia McGrath provided direct opportunities to dismiss Jemimah Rodrigues, whose innings of 127* would go down as one of the most decisive innings by the Indian team in a World Cup knockout match.
And so, women’s cricket saw a record chase, paving the way for a new champion to be crowned on Sunday (November 2). It also meant that Australia, in the space of 12 months, had lost two World Cup semi-finals. For the first time since the inception of the T20 World Cup in 2009, they had failed to reach the final of a consecutive ICC tournament.
However, this is bound to confuse them. Australia had gone undefeated in 15 ODI World Cup games, had made it through the league stage of this edition, and yet found a way to stumble at the penultimate hurdle. As captain, Healy was tasked with the daunting task of making sense of it all in the immediate aftermath.
“I think ultimately we weren’t sharp enough today, probably in all three aspects, that we could have given ourselves a chance to win the semi-final,” Healy said. “I think we played pretty well there. We created a lot of chances and let ourselves down in that regard. So maybe sitting here feeling disappointed that we let ourselves down a little bit. Not taking anything away from the Indian performance. I thought they played really well. But yeah, there’s an element of us letting ourselves down a little bit.”
“Having won the toss and batted first, we could have been a little better and got a few more, the irony is. Yeah, I think we felt good. We still felt we had to work with the ball and in the end we felt we were batting a little bit and couldn’t capitalise on the chances we created. So we are a little disappointed. We sit here and know how we played in this World Cup,” She added.
Healy couldn’t quite understand why Australia had such an unusual day on the field, their biggest difference from the normally chasing pack. “They [dropped catches] definitely changed the course of the match. Was it semi-final pressure? Maybe. Was it just concentration? Was it something? I’m not sure… we can call it whatever we want. But as I said, on a good wicket that got better and better as the night went on, to create the chances that we did and not take advantage of, I think it was disappointing.”
“Oddly, I think we were still in it with four or five overs to go. Probably five overs to go. I think we were still in it. Funny things happen in games of cricket when it gets tight like that. If you can put enough pressure on an opposition, things can unfold. So, yeah, she [Rodrigues] played really well tonight. Obviously, like I said, we gave her a couple of opportunities which didn’t help us, but I thought she played really well. I thought her resilience; I think her mental resilience out there to get her team across the line was exemplary. So full credit to her.”
Comparisons may be lazy, yet it was hard to avoid the deja vu. Australia’s last ODI World Cup defeat, eight years ago, came against India, sealed by a second-generation innings. After the derby defeat, Australia analysed their white-ball cricket and emerged victorious again, hoarding trophies for entertainment. Thursday’s loss may not require a complete rethink, but introspection will come later, when the next wave under Lichfield’s leadership is ready to extend their legacy.
