Image Credit- BCCI
Australia’s captain, Alyssa Healy, acknowledged that
her team was in the match until the first ball of the last day. Play began on
Sunday morning with a 46-run advantage and just five wickets remaining. But in
the second innings, Australia was bowled out for 261 runs, adding just 28 runs
to their total for the night. India took eight wickets with ease to reach the
objective.
“Coming in today all results were possible and we
believed that if we had batted 30-40 overs this morning and even put 100-150 on
the board, things could have been interesting this afternoon,” Healy said
following Australia’s loss in the one-off Test against India in Mumbai.
Healy did acknowledge, though, that her team lost the
initiative early in the Test and had a long time to accept the terms that were
being offered. On the first day, the visitors chose to bat and were bowled out
for 219 after Tahlia McGrath scored a half-century and Beth Mooney and Healy
made some helpful contributions.
Similar to what Nat Sciver-Brunt had said after
England’s defeat last week, the Australian captain felt that his country’s
inexperience with multi-day cricket contributed to its slow adaptation to the
circumstances.
“Getting bowled out in the afternoon of that
first day and letting them get to 98/0 start was not ideal. We probably didn’t
adjust to the lengths quick enough. We gave them a bit too much to hit.
“I am still coming to grips with it. I have
played just seven Tests. You wouldn’t see too many captains sitting here that
have played that little Test matches in the men’s game. For all of us, we are
still learning about the game. But in saying that, it is the simplest version
of the game and it is a combination of the other cricket we have played. There
are parts we can take from the one day game that we can put in the Test match
arena.It is what it is and I’ll continue to learn and grow as I go.
“I think the variability of the wicket got us in
strife. We had distinct gameplans individually, and whatever that looked like
it was gonna benefit each individual and at times we went away from it and
that’s where we got ourselves in trouble. My shot yesterday went away from my
gameplan for a fraction of a second and found me walking back to the shed.
That’s what you learn.”