Photo Credit: Sydney Sixers
On a very special night for Australian sport, Sixers wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy played a starring role helping Australia claim a fifth Women’s World T20 title on Sunday night.
Before 86,174 at the MCG, a record for a women’s sporting event in Australia, Healy blazed 75 from just 39 balls during a Player of the Match performance against India.
All but 17 runs came in boundaries and sixes with the opener clearing the rope on five occasions to start the match. In the process, also passing 2,000 T20 International runs.
“It’s a dream come true, and for me I enjoyed every single minute, I don’t think you saw me without a smile on my face that whole time because we just went out there and we enjoyed the moment. We enjoyed what we were able to create,” said Healy after the Final.
It was the highest score in a Women’s T20 World Cup Final before opening partner and Player of the Tournament Beth Mooney surpassed that later in the innings with 78 not out. Australia posted 4/184 and dismissed India for 99.
“I don’t think anything is ever going to top that,” said Healy.
“I hope that there are girls in this side that are going to experience that for a long period of time, but for me I never thought that we would get the opportunity to do something as cool as what we did today and play in front of almost 90,000 people at the MCG, in a home World Cup Final.”
Healy has been part of all five World Cup winning campaigns for Australia and is the leading wicketkeeper-batter in tournament history. She has made 752 runs at a strike rate of 132 plus claimed 25 dismissals behind the stumps including 13 catches and 12 stumpings.
She was the second leading run-scorer for the 2020 World Cup behind Mooney with 236 runs at just under 40. Healy was named as one of five Australian players in the Team of the Tournament.
Like many of the Australian players, Healy was able to enjoy the moment with family and friends, including husband Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who was released from the Men’s One-Day squad in South Africa to be at the MCG.
Asked who had bragging rights, after Starc similarly produced a match-defining performance in the 2015 Men’s One-Day World Cup Final at the same venue, Healy quipped that there was no doubt about the answer.
“100 per cent me,” she said with a beaming smile.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of successful World Cup campaigns now, but to do it here on home soil was always going to be incredibly difficult to do. I guess Mitch and I are one-all on that stage.”
Healy was one of four Sixers in the World Cup winning squad along with Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry and Erin Burns.
Perry missed the Final due to a hamstring injury, while Burns was also hampered by injury.
