Phoebe Litchfield hails Ellyse Perry following Australia's ODI series triumph over India
Dec 30, 2023
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 30 : Australia batter Phoebe Litchfield hailed Ellyse Perry for remarkable batting skills during the visitors ODI series triumph over India on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium.
Perry scored 50 off 47 deliveries which proved vital to Australia reaching a competitive total of 258/8. Her 77-run stand with Litchfield turned out to be a big game-changer for the visitors.
Litchfield praised Perry for her remarkable performance with the bat and said, "It was a challenging pitch, you saw me struggling. 250 was a par total. She (Perry) is an amazing player, takes the pressure off me, hopefully we'll have more partnerships."
Litchfield talked about how the surface changed over the period allowing spinners to get the ball to turn as the game progressed.
"It was easier at the top as compared to facing the spinners. Ash's first over, she didn't get much spin, but it started spinning later. We had to take our chances, needed to bowl in good areas and put the pressure back on them. Our bowlers held their nerves towards the end," Litchfield added.
For India, Richa Ghosh acted as the driving force throughout India's chase of 259 against a fierce Australian bowling line-up. Her knock brought India close yet they fell so far away from bringing the series to level terms.
Deepti got close to her maiden ton as she stood just four runs short of her much-deserved three figures.
She went for the glory, committed to the drive but to her luck, the ball went straight to Phoebe Litchfield off Annabel Sutherland's delivery.
Wickets kept falling at one end as Deepti Sharma stood unbeaten on the other end. After Harleen Deol's dismissal, India needed 16 runs in the final over.
Alyssa Healy handed the ball to Sutherland to see off the game. On the first ball, Deepti struck a four to bring down the occasion to 12 runs in 5 balls.
Sutherland recovered in the next two balls which also saw Shreyanka Patil's catch dropped. With nine needed in the final two balls, Sutherland kept composure and bowled slower deliveries away from the batter to see off the game for Australia.
