CWC 2022: Record-breaking Healy help Australia take World Cup home

After the Australian onslaught, Sciver tried to keep England in the chase, but they fell short by 71 runs.
Alyssa Healy after her record-breaking 170 in the Women's World Cup 2022 finals (Photo | AFP)
Alyssa Healy after her record-breaking 170 in the Women's World Cup 2022 finals (Photo | AFP)

It was always going to be like this. Although England and Australia had been the top teams through the course of the championship cycle, when these two were lined up for the summit clash at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, the ones who were wishing an England win or a close contest knew that they were hoping against hope. But even they would not have expected things to unfold the way they did. Alyssa Healy broke some records, Natalie Sciver waged a lone battle, trying to make it look like a close contest, but in the end, as expected at the start of the tournament, Meg Lanning’s Australia were crowned as the ODI World Champions.

When Heather Knight opted to bowl in hopes of restricting Australia, it all depended on Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt. They bowled as well as they could, but Healy and Rachael Haynes survived the powerplay, even if it was for just 42 runs for nil. There were some nervy plays and misses, a couple of drop catches off Kate Cross’ bowling in the same over, but once they were past that, Haynes took charge, making the most of everything that was a little bit on the shorter side.

Healy was playing very un-Healy-like innings, batting at 47 from 61 balls. It all took a short-of-length delivery from Cross to flip a switch. Healy pulled her to the fence, bringing up her fifty, followed it up with a cover drive for a four. Charlie Dean was at the receiving end next, as she tonked her down the ground twice in the same over. Brunt, Dean, Natalie Sciver, whoever came on, Healy was hitting them all across the park. Her husband and Australia men’s cricketer Mitchell Starc cheering on from the crowd made it all even more worth it.

Haynes got out for 68 runs from 93 balls, but not before adding 160 runs for the first wicket. Healy was joined by partner-in-crime in the T20 format — Beth Mooney. They built a partnership with ease, adding 74 runs in the next ten overs, with Healy bringing up her second consecutive hundred in the World Cup.

What followed was madness. Healy went berserk, trying to hit every ball for a boundary and succeeding at it more often than not. She was ramping, going inside out, shuffling across and scooping, moving leg-side and slicing through square on off-side, while also hitting a few down the ground. No England bowler was spared: 18 off a Sciver and Cross’ overs, 19 off Sophie Ecclestone to name a few. From 131 from 122, Healy went to 170 off 137, but eventually got out to Shrubsole, largely thanks to a stunning stumping from Amy Jones. They had added 156 runs from 98 balls for the second wicket.

Meanwhile, Mooney, too, had gone past her fifty, and a few records were broken along the way up until then — highest individual score in a World Cup final (men’s or women’s), Highest partnership (Healy-Haynes) for any wicket in a World Cup final, most runs in a single edition of the World Cup, first player to score over 500 runs in a Women’s World Cup, second-highest individual score in a World Cup knockout match, etc.

Shrubsole pulled things back a bit, but Ellyse Perry, who was on the team as a specialist batter, gave a final push (17 from 10), taking Australia to 356 for five, the highest score in a Women’s World Cup final.

England started off with Tammy Beaumont taking the aggressive route, but ‘The Megan Schutt Inswinger’ was just waiting. Schutt castled the leg stump of Daniele Wyatt with a booming inswinger to provide Australia their first breakthrough. Beaumont hit a flurry of boundaries, especially against Darcie Brown, but once again, she fell prey to Schutt’s inswinger as the pacer trapped her on the knee roll.

Joined by Sciver, Knight built a partnership. The duo kept the scoreboard moving as well. Just when it looked like England were going good at 84 for two after 14 overs when Knight played Alana King on backdoor, only to be trapped on the pads.

Sciver, at the other end, was batting like a dream. She took on Brown, King, Tahlia MGrath, Jess Jonassen, hitting them all across the park. Reverse sweeps, pulls, straight-batted shots through mid wicket, scoops, fine sweeps (which often brought her into trouble as she survived a close LBW call) came into play as Sciver showed measured intent, but trusted her ability to pull off the shots whenever she went for it.

Jones stayed with her for a while, then came Sophia Dunkley, Brunt, and Cross but no one stayed long enough as Sciver waged a lone battle, bringing up her second century of the tournament. When she reached the milestone, England were going at 215 for eight, needing 142 runs from 16 overs.

Sciver went on a rampage as she jumped out of the crease and lofted Jonassen over midwicket for a boundary. A scoop off McGrath followed. King came on, and Sciver played her most productive shot of the day, which was also her riskiest, trying to sweep the leggie behind square. After the kind of innings she had played, Sciver had her share of luck as the ball missed the stumps by a whisker and she collected three. In the next over, she tried to scoop and deflected her enough to get a four. With Charlie Dean, she had added 44 runs in the six overs since her hundred and England needed 98 runs from the last ten overs.

A frustrated Meg Lanning brought on Ashleigh Gardner for the first time and Sciver welcomed her with a reverse-cut behind gully. A single here and a couple there came by as England collected ten runs from the over. Jonassen gave away six, Gardner removed Dean as they got the ninth. England needed 77 runs from 42 balls, but for Australia, it was a matter of just one delivery.

Sciver had none of it as she managed to get a boundary of the first delivery from Jonassen. A couple of deliveries later, it was all over as Shrubsole skied one and Gardner completed the rest. Sciver, once again, was left stranded with an unbeaten 148 from121 balls.


Brief scores: Australia 356/7 in50 ovs (Healy 170; Haynes 68; Shrubsole 3/46) beat England 285 all out in 43.4 ovs (Sciver 148, King 3/64) by 71 runs

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