After the second ODI against India at the Wankhede Stadium here, which Australia won to seal the series, skipper Alyssa Healy shared a description of the Aussie way of cricket.
“Something about Australian sporting teams… we hang in there. We still believed we could win till the last ball and that’s what made us successful. We just knew that if we kept creating dot balls, kept creating pressure then chances would come and that’s exactly what this team has been really good at doing for a long period of time and we did it again,” she said.
Healy’s triumph stemmed from a team effort to keep India under the pump, of course, but the performances of two youngsters - 20-year-old Phoebe Litchfield and 22-year-old Annabel Sutherland shone through.
READ | India vs Australia 2nd ODI match report
Fresh legs, old values
When you start off a tour as important as the one against India with a diamond duck, one might not blame you for letting it get to your head. Even more so when a whole stand of fans is there to constantly remind you of being unable to even get off the mark on your first outing with the bat. However, if you’re Litchfield, all of this fades into oblivion.
Being run out without facing a ball in the first innings and then falling for a 44-ball 18 in the second is not how Litchfield thought her red-ball shift would go. She more than compensated, however, when she swapped the Test whites for the one-day yellow. She scored an 89-ball 78 in the first ODI and a 98-ball 63 in the second - both knocks anchoring the Aussie innings to safety and victory.
“I think to play in India, I’d come for free.”Phoebe Litchfield
While her international run began on Indian soil in December 2022, it truly took off in 2023, culminating in an enviable pile of statistics. It began with fifties on the trot in her first ODI series, against Pakistan at home in January. She struck her maiden ODI hundred, against Ireland in July, and followed that up by equalling Sophie Devine’s record of the fastest half century in T20Is against West Indies in September.
Don’t fall for the cherubic exterior. Litchfield is all business once the gloves come on and the bat is in hand. So much so that she finished among the top three rungetters in women’s ODIs in 2023 with 485 runs (behind New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr who scored 541 and her compatriot Ellyse Perry who finished with 467). She went past former Aussie skipper Meg Lanning for most ODI runs in a calendar year. Lanning smashed 484 runs in the 2012 season. Litchfield pipped her first captain by a solitary run, all in her first year in international cricket.
READ | Perry’s Wankhede resilience brings back memories of one-legged heroics in 2013 World Cup final
The young opener enjoys a challenge and is always game to push her own brand of cricket a notch higher each time she takes the field. Missing out on playing the T20 World Cup which Australia won earlier this year only spurred her on.
“The Ashes was a really good learning curve for me,” Litchfield said after the first ODI against India. “To score runs in Ireland was enjoyable but Indian conditions are a whole different beast and it was as enjoyable as it was a good challenge.”
The surety and old-school quality to her strokemaking makes her lovely to watch with the bat. Her sweeping abilities are among the best in the team, a scoring option she calls her ‘get out of jail’ card. Litchfield is also an asset on the field. In the second ODI, she dove parallel to the ground to take a blinder to dismiss a settling Jemimah Rodrigues.
Annabel Sutherland and Phoebe Litchfield brought up an unbeaten 221-run partnership against Ireland in July. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Sutherland till we die
During Australia’s tour of Ireland, Litchfield had able company in her scoring pursuits in teammate Sutherland. She has had quite an interesting year herself. The Victoria player made her international debut in 2020 but it was in 2023 that her career took off.
Sutherland made heads turn when she scored her maiden international ton in the Ashes Test in Trent Bridge. Her unbeaten 137-run knock was the highest score in women’s Tests for a player coming in at number eight, and played a pivotal role in the Aussies winning the four-day fixture.
READ | ‘Bucket Hatters’ light up Wankhede, give game’s largest stakeholder a voice
A month later, Litchfield (106*) and Sutherland (109*) stitched an unbeaten 221-run partnership at Clontarf Cricket Club helping Australia to a 10-wicket victory against the Irish. This was the nation’s highest opening stand in the format.
Sutherland also saddles bowling responsibilities and is a key part of the pace arsenal, especially in Healy’s Aussie side. Against India, she won the Player of the Match award in the 2nd ODI which sealed the series in her side’s favour. She was entrusted with the ball in the death, with a total India could have easily chased down. Healy handed Sutherland (who had bowled only four overs until that point) the ball in the 42nd over to bowl in partnership with Ashleigh Garnder and Kim Garth. India needed 58 runs from 54 balls at that stage.
“I think even being exposed to conditions like Wankhede and more spinning conditions that we don’t get the chance to play on much back home [helps]. I’ve travelled a lot this year in lots of conditions. I am trying to pick up different things along the way. My strengths will be my strengths, but if I can add little things along the way, I think that’s how my career can keep progressing.”Annabel Sutherland
Sutherland went on to bowl five overs, took three key wickets of Richa Ghosh ( who looked dangerous batting on 96, with Litchfield taking the catch), Amanjot Kaur and Pooja Vastrakar, all handy batters whose explosive power could have taken the game away.
“I’ve learnt a lot about my game in the last year. Looking back at the start to the T20 World Cup in South Africa, I wasn’t in the team as much as I would have liked, but I certainly learned a lot on the sidelines watching. I worked really hard over the off season to crack into the team for the Ashes,” Sutherland explained.
“Part of the challenge of being in this team is that when you do get chances, you hold on to the opportunity and make an impact on the game. I tried to do that during the Ashes which was a very challenging series in tough conditions and against a tough opponent. Domestic cricket in Australia is another opportunity to put my talents on show and I could do that by playing for Melbourne and for Victoria,” she added.
Big WPL contracts for Litchfield and Sutherland
Change is the only constant
Australia’s every decision is geared towards turning dividends in the ICC events scheduled in the subcontinent over the next 18 months. Their young opener and bowling allrounder firing is the best note to start the year on for a side in transition, looking to find a way to keep the Aussie culture of winning unblemished.
““Another point is (that) winning is a bit of a theme that you have got to learn - know how to win and keep the belief that you can (win),” Sutherland said about the culture of the side. A new captain, a learning think tank and new challenges on the cricket field may pose daunting questions to a side with a legacy to guard. However, skipper Healy knows that the young blood at her disposal is eager to add to the fabled history of its nation in the game. Sutherland and Litchfield are perfect poster girls for the same.
The prospect fills Healy with hope as she sums up the gains facing her side as such, “People forget that our team has seen a lot of change in the last 12-18 months and yet we keep producing these young players who are ready for international cricket. They’re still learning as they go but they’re still contributing to the team’s cause for which credit is due to our domestic system back home and also to the culture of the side where they believe they fit in and can play a big role in.”
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