In the high-stakes semi-final clash at Navi Mumbai on Thursday, India defeated seven-time champions Australia by five wickets to secure their place in the Women’s World Cup semi-final. The star of the match was Jemimah Rodrigues who scored an unbeaten 127 – a performance that completely turned the match in India’s favour after India received many early setbacks.
The match also marked the last ODI match for Aussie captain Alyssa Healy as she confirmed that it was her final ODI World Cup appearance. During the innings Healy missed a crucial catch of Rodrigues when she was batting at 82 which proved to be extremely expensive as Jemimah emerged as the match-winner of the match.
After the match, Alyssa Healy also opened up about her future in ODIs and said that “I won’t be there.”
“That’s the beauty of this next cycle – we’re going to see that unfold. Obviously, there’s a T20 World Cup in the middle of next year, which is really exciting for our group. But I think our one-day cricket is probably going to shift a little bit again.
“We’ll learn from what we did wrong tonight. We’ll grow, we’ll get better. And the opportunity for some young players to get greater opportunities in this side is a really exciting thing for Australian cricket.”
“When you’ve seen players my age walk away from the game, it’s kind of a weird experience to stand there and watch the next generation go about it,” she added.
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In India’s chase, openers Shefali Varma and Smriti Mandhana were dismissed early and that’s when Jemimah and Harmanpreet stepped in. While the Indian skipper played a steady knock of 89 runs, Jemimah took the charge and kept Australia under pressure. Deepti Sharma (24) and Richa Ghosh (26) also contributed in the lower order but Amanjot Kaur sealed the deak with an unbeaten 15 off just 8 balls.
