England captain Heather Knight on Sunday heaped praise on Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Alyssa Healy, saying her whirlwind 170 was one of the best innings she had seen live.
Healy’s knock enabled Australia to post a mammoth total of 356/5 after being pushed into bat first. In reply, apart from vice-captain Nat Sciver’s unbeaten 148, no other batsman could lend support as the defending champions lost the title clash by 71 runs.
“Maybe it was a 50-50 decision on the toss (to bowl first). But the credit for bringing that kind of performance in the World Cup final goes to Australia. Alyssa, that was a remarkable innings and not really a pleasure to watch, but it’s one of the best innings I’ve seen live.”
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“I think we didn’t get an answer and it was an amazing wicket and really tough to defend and if we had kept them at around 300 which would have been par we had a good chance of chasing it down.” Knight said after the match.
Knight was fully appreciative of Sciver’s single-handed fight and saw England needed to learn how to build bigger partnerships from Australia.
“Remarkable, absolutely incredible off the net, skill against spin and scoring speed around the field and it’s unfortunate we didn’t have anyone to be with him.”
“Looks like the runs on the board forced us to take some more risks and we couldn’t have that big partnership. I think that’s something Australia does excellently and so we can learn from how they Once set, take the game away from the opposition.”
Despite Australia winning the title, Knight was proud of how his team finished as runners-up, especially on the verge of an early exit after losing the first three matches of the tournament.
“Very proud of the group. Massively proud of the group, seeing how we managed to turn. Unfortunately, one win was too much for us. Commonwealth Games at home and then the T20 World Cup (next year) We’ve had a big year together.”
“Special mention to Sophie Ecclestone, I’m glad to see the youngsters doing well. The staff has been on the road for two-three months. Thank you for keeping us going. Nice to see the big crowd here tonight.”
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