Australia captain Alyssa Healy lamented the missed chances in the field, admitting her side underperformed with the bat and struggled to contain runs with the ball after their semi-final defeat to India in Navi Mumbai.
Batting first, on the back of a hundred from Phoebe Litchfield and fifties from Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner, Australia posted a total of 338. In their defence, there were a lot of freebies bowled, coupled with dropped catches, which didn’t help the cause of the defending champions.
“Winning the toss and batting first, I think we could have been a little bit better and got a few more, ironically,” she said at the press-conference. “So, yeah, I think at the halfway mark we thought we went okay. We knew we still had a pretty big job to do with the ball and ultimately I just think we dished up a little bit too much junk to hit at times and also probably just didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that we did create. So, yeah, disappointing. It sort of feels a little bit un-Australian to not be as clinical as we normally are. Knowing how well we’ve played this World Cup, it feels a little bit disappointing sitting here.”
Healy dropped Jemimah Rodrigues and then Tahlia McGrath put one down at mid-off. These missed opportunities came back to haunt Australia as they had an uncharacteristically off day in the field.
“They [dropped catches] definitely changed the course of the match. Was it semi-final pressure? Maybe. Was it just concentration? Was it something else? I’m not sure… we could put that down to whatever. But, like I said, on a pretty decent wicket that seemed to be getting better and better to bat on as the night went on, to create those opportunities that we did and not capitalise was disappointing,” she added.
With the loss, Australia’s unbeaten run came to a halt. It also meant that Australia, within a year, had lost two World Cup semi-finals. For the first time since 2009, they have failed to reach the final of consecutive ICC tournaments.
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