Steely Healy turns struggle to spectacle

It must not have been easy being Alyssa Healy walking into the 2025 World Cup game against India - her batting rhythm missing, frustration admittedly building in the nets and a personal rivalry simmering against an unlikely nemesis. But then, that's the thing about big-match players: they don't flinch, they rise.

And rise she did - absorbing pressure around her, launching a calculated assault and meticulously taking down India's weakened bowling to stretch Australia's unbeaten run in World Cups to 12 games.

Eight overs into their marquee World Cup clash, the Australian skipper was second-guessing her decision to bowl first. The Indian openers were just settling in for what would be a 150+ partnership in good batting conditions, and Healy thought she'd stitched themselves up. From thereon through, she was happy to take the 330 India were restricted to, but Healy knew "it needed somebody to make 100 to chase down that total". Once that batting rhythm was found, amidst the challenge of mounting the highest successful chase in ODI history, Healy decided to be that somebody.

When Kranti Gaud tied down Phoebe Litchfield with a maiden for the fourth over, Healy at the other end took on Amanjot Kaur to release the pressure. She was quick to judge the length - a fraction short - and pounced on it immediately with a pull through deep square-leg. One ball later, she crunched a drive uppishly right next to Amanjot's outstretched hand for four more.

Healy was absent through injury at this year's WPL when her side, UP Warriorz, introduced the world to Gaud. Their paths only ever crossed in the three-ODI bilateral series last month, where the prodigious Indian pacer made a statement by dismissing the Australian captain every single time. On Sunday, under the World Cup glare, Healy made it clear she hadn't forgotten.

After a quiet start from Gaud, Healy decided to turn the tables by powerfully lofting her over mid-on first ball of her fourth over. The pacer erred in her lengths right after, sending down back-to-back short balls without the field for it, and getting pulled to leg-side fence with ease. A wide followed, and then a drive through the off-side for another boundary. The 19-run over saw Gaud taken off the attack immediately.

With Sree Charani's immense control making her a difficult option to put away, strike-rotation took priority as she rebuilt alongside Ellyse Perry. Right after Perry played out a maiden in the 22nd over from the left-arm spinner, Healy counterattacked another UPW teammate - this time Deepti Sharma. A full, legside freebie was swept away and the short one on off pulled hard - and just like that, the runs were flowing again.

When Deepti course-corrected, Healy took apart the part-time offspin of Harmanpreet Kaur. She brought herself on for the match-up against the left-handed Beth Mooney, but Healy hogged the strike and the two loopy deliveries towards the end of the only over she would bowl were put away with consummate ease by her Australian counterpart to march into her 90s.

When Charani and Deepti combined to wrest back control in the next five, with a wicket each for just 18 runs combined, Healy laid into the returning Sneh Rana next. A fierce aerial sweep took her to 99, and on the other side of the 84-ball century was the inside-out over extra cover when the offside field was up. Rana gave the last one bang in the slot, and slog-sweep cleared the leaping deep mid-wicket fielder.

Juggling just five frontline bowlers made Harmanpreet desperate to preserve the overs of Charani - the pick of the Indian bowlers - but the frequent change-ups provided easy opportunities for a set Healy to keep finding expensive overs. Sooner than later pace was bound to return, and Healy cashed in with more boundary hits to pluck 50 in the next five. Of Gaud alone she scored 35 off 22 deliveries tonight having previously hit just 39 in 35 across the three innings last month.

"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. I've been struggling to find it, and I didn't really know where it went before I came into the World Cup," Healy said after the Player of the Match contribution.

"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, [I was] 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."

Until her last spell, Charani kept it tight from one end but Healy feasted on Rana's looseners to keep dispatching the slogsweeps to the ropes - making the Indian captain look helpless and their attack toothless.

In a sustained attack, Healy soaked up the pressure remarkably, unleashing the big shots just when Australia needed to help keep up with the asking rate. She struck 50 off 31 deliveries from the inexperienced pacers at a formidable 9.67 run-rate but also didn't spare the poor ones from the seasoned spinners - making 92 in 72 deliveries at a healthy 7.26 to keep Australia ahead in the equation.

The 107-ball 142 was Healy's maiden century as Australia captain, and also the first since the mammoth 170 that helped Australia lift the previous World Cup in New Zealand in 2022. In the 25 innings since, Healy hadn't survived the PowerPlay on more than seven occasions. If she did, the opener didn't make it past the 20-over mark more than thrice.

"I was just trying to focus and lock in on the job at hand. First and foremost you've got to get off to a good start - that's something we haven't quite done thus far in this World Cup, to set a platform in the first-10," Healy said of her approach in the early part of the innings.

"I thought Phoebe (Litchfield) and I were able to do that. And then to try and drop the [asking] run-rate as quickly as what we can, back down to six and over, which sounds easy, but to do it over long periods in 50-over game isn't the easiest. We managed to chase really well, but the start enabled us to do that.

Despite battling form concerns following an injury-ridden 2024-25, Healy brought out her destructive self in a high-pressure game, in front of a 19,000+ partisan crowd, to script a win that would inspire more confidence than the two scrappy ones that marked the start of Australia's title defence.

"At the break, we spoke about how actually the last few times we've played against India, we've made over 300. We've put 400 on them in a fixture as well, and so we knew we could do it. It was just [about] going out there and doing it under pressure," Healy said after the record chase.

"That's a really cool stat and one for our batting unit to take a heap of confidence [from] moving down into the tournament to go, 'yep, we were able to achieve that, let's go again."

If the two earlier wins were a testament to Australia's depth, Healy hitting her stride adds another layer of invincibility to an already formidable line-up - an encouraging sign heading into the business end of the competition.