By Captain’s knock, Healy beats Australian teammate Perry for the highest score in the new Indian WPL
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Alyssa Healy has achieved the highest score in the new Women’s Premier League while also winning her heavyweight duel with Australia great Ellyse Perry.
Neither Healy, skipper of Lucknow-based UP Warriorz, nor Royal Challengers Bangalore all-around ace Perry had set the tournament on fire, but both found their A games with half centuries in Friday’s clash at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
But while Perry unfolded a 39-ball 52, the top scorer in RCB’s 138 All Out, it proved no match for a well-known Healy special at the top of the Warriorz order as she smashed an undefeated 96 from just 47 balls , to speed them up to a 10-wicket win.
With the scores over at the end of the 13th, Healy needed a six to move up to the first three-digit score in the new tournament, but missed her slog to a deep midwicket and had to settle for a winning single instead.
She had dominated her match-winning opening streak with Devika Vaidya (36 none from 31 balls) and was within limits on 78 of her runs, with 18 fours and a six.
And her hit surpassed that of Australian teammate, world No. 1 T20 batter Tahlia McGrath, who had an unbeaten 90 for the Warriorz against Delhi Capitals earlier in the week.
It was such a clinical, clean shot that England teammate Sophie Ecclestone recalled when Healy hammered her bowling in one of the greatest white ball knocks of all time in last year’s World Cup Finals in Christchurch.
“Midge (Healy’s nickname) just showed how good she can be. Took me back to that World Cup final in New Zealand – and I’m just glad I’m on the same team now,” said spinner Ecclestone, the world’s leading T20 bowler, who did her own part to win by winning one masterfully 4-13.
In the uninterrupted 139 squad with Vaidya, Healy will no doubt be pleased to have won her neck-and-neck race with her luminary Perry.
First, Healy boldly and deliberately pushed a delivery from her old friend for four right past the diving wicketkeeper and later in the same overpowered Perry right over her head for another.
When asked how she managed to increase the rate so dramatically after hitting 50 balls out of 29 and then taking 46 balls out of the next 18, Healy shrugged, “I’m not sure … we had about that spoken not to postpone it until the finale.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Today is the day and I am very happy about that.”
The win moves the Warriorz into third place in the five-team table, just behind Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals, who also have four points but have a superior net run rate. RCB appear to be out of contention as they have not clinched a win in their four games as undefeated Indians from Mumbai set the pace at the top.
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© AAP
https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/03/11/captains-knock-sees-healy-smash-highest-score-in-new-indian-wpl-against-aussie-teammate-perry/ By Captain's knock, Healy beats Australian teammate Perry for the highest score in the new Indian WPL
