Alyssa Healy heartbreakingly missed the chance to conquer the final frontier of her illustrious career, but still fulfilled a challenge she set herself when she became Australian captain.
Healy appeared certain to score her maiden Test century before the stunning disappointment of playing her first false shot of the innings to be out caught and bowled in the shadow of stumps on day one for 99, a cruel fate that once also befell her husband, Mitchell Starc.
The Australian skipper told herself upon stepping into Meg Lanning’s shoes as captain that she wanted to draw on her predecessors innate ability to carry her team on her shoulders … and she did just that on Thursday night even if the brilliant counter-attacking knock ended in utter shock and disbelief.
After obliterating South Africa in the first session of the Test to bowl them out for 76, Australia suddenly found itself on the brink of its own crisis in response at 3-12.
That was before Beth Mooney (78) and Healy (99 off 124) combined for a match-altering partnership that steered Australia to a commanding 175-run lead as they finished the day 5-251.
Cricket’s iconic Wild West had another tale of destruction to tell after Australian quick Darcie Brown ransacked South Africa … but the carnage only continued when Phoebe Litchfield was out in the first over and Ellyse Perry and Tahlia McGrath followed cheaply soon after.
Enter A. Healy.
Along with the world’s premier batter Mooney, Healy resurrected the innings in oppressive 40 degree conditions with a trademark counter-attacking knock, and after the tea break, the Australians found another gear to leave the South African total in their wake.
Healy suffered a potentially career-threatening injury at the start of the summer when she was bitten on the hand by her dog in a freak accident.
But Healy has shaken off the setback and extinguished any doubts about the long-term impact on her precious keeping and batting fingers.
However, devastatingly she missed out on notching what would have been a signature moment of her career.
The Australian captain openly admitted after last year’s drawn Ashes that she had learned big lessons about the challenge of leading her country, and she was again tested in India over the summer when the Aussies suffered a rare Test match trouncing.
But stepping into the very large shoes of Lanning, Healy has proven herself to be another one of those special captains who leads from the front – a trait she didn’t feel she possessed when she took on the captaincy.
“What I’ve learned from Meg over her leadership is how resilient she is and also her ability to just pick up all of the team, put them on her shoulders and go, ‘I’m gonna go out there and win the game for my side’”, Healy said when she took over as captain.
“That probably hasn’t always been the way that I’ve played my cricket and it’s probably not been the way that I’ve led either. But I mean, if I can find some sort of middle ground in that regard and go, ‘You know what, it’s my time to go out there and win the game or play the innings or take the catch that wins it’, then I’m going to do that as a leader and hopefully show the others that we can do it.”
It was a horror couple of hours for South African cricket in general, as the Protea men collapsed to lose 6-33 in New Zealand at the same time five-wicket hero Brown and pace twin Annabel Sutherland sent the rainbow nation’s women packing for 76, their lowest ever Test score.
This is only the second Test South Africa’s women have played in the past decade, and it showed as Australia very nearly bowled them out in the first session of the match, leaving them completely rattled at 8-55 at lunch.
Brown’s spectacular 5-21 was not only her best Test match bowling figures, but was the first five-wicket haul of her international career overall as the 20-year-old announced herself as a genuine star of the future.
Sutherland was also mesmerising with her 3-19 from 9 overs, and at one point was on a hat-trick after dismissing South Africa batting star Tazmin Brits and Test debutant Delmi Tucker in successive balls.