Healy opens up on heated exchange with Harmanpreet Kaur in Mumbai. India hammered Australia by eight wickets in last week’s one-off Test in Mumbai.
During Day 3 of the only Test between the two teams, played at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Australian captain Alyssa Healy got into a furious exchange.
Healy walked out of her crease in the 80th over of Australia’s second innings and defended a ball back at Harmanpreet, who was bowling. The Punjab batsman took up the ball and attempted to hit the stumps at the striker’s end. The ball was aimed directly at the Australian wicketkeeper-batter’s torso, and she used her bat to divert it past the first slip. Harmanpreet, enraged, complained for obstructing the field, but umpire Anil Kumar Chaudhary ruled that Healy was not in the wrong and asked her counterpart to resume the game.
When asked about the incident, Healy refused to read too much into it. Saying that it simply demonstrate how passionately the two teams were playing their cricket to win the match.
“I don’t believe there is a rivalry.” I believe we are just two cricketers going at it. That’s pretty much how I’d sum it up. She obviously enjoys cricket as much as I do. When Australia plays India, this is what happens. It’s a nice, tough competition. Yesterday was most likely an example of it,” Healy said to reporters.
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I see more positives out of the one-off Test than any sort of negativity: Alyssa Healy
According to Healy, the Test match loss does not signal the end of their dominance in world cricket. The 33-year-old was pleased with the results despite the unfamiliar format and environment. She also mention that people who are accustom to watching Australia triumph tend to overlook the team’s change over the last 12-18 months.
“It’s barely a blip. It’s a format we’re not too comfortable with, in conditions we’re not too accustom with. This has more pros than negatives in my opinion. I believe there is always a lot of expectation and external noise surrounding our team and how we execute… “They’re so used to seeing us win that I think they forget at times that we’ve actually seen quite a lot of change over the last 12 to 18 months that kind of goes unnoticed outside of our group,” Healy said.