Australia’s rising star Phoebe Litchfield produced a standout all-round display in the first ODI against India, scoring a fluent 88 off 80 balls before delivering a game-changing direct hit to dismiss Smriti Mandhana.
But Litchfield proved to be instrumental even beyond batting as she exhibited brilliant athleticism when she sent back India’s main batter Smriti Mandhana for 58 with a direct hit from extra cover breaking India’s opening-wicket stand of 114 runs earlier, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Had Mandhana batted for more overs, India would have surely scored in excess of 300 runs instead of the 281/7 they eventually ended up with. This athleticism not only comes from cricket training but also from the fact that Litchfield has dabbled in various sports as a teenager before choosing hockey and cricket as her primary sports.
Having represented Australia in U-16 hockey, Litchfield got selected to play for the Australia women’s cricket team in 2022. Her knack of playing reverse-sweeps in cricket can also be attributed to the fact that being a left-hander, she had to play hockey with her less-dominant right side making her wrists stronger. Although she got out playing her favourite reverse-sweep in the first ODI, expect the shot to be played more frequently in the upcoming ODI World Cup.
The 22-year-old came to the three-match ODI series high on her brilliant showing in the The Hundred in England a few days ago playing for Northern Superchargers and leading them to the title. She emerged as the highest scorer in the tournament making 292 runs and winning the Player of the Tournament. However, switching from the T20 format to 50-over was tough for Litchfield.
“That was the biggest thing that I learned today, that my brain was probably going a bit quicker than it needed to, especially for a 50-over format game and it surely is cricket’s a long game,” Litchfield said after the match on the switch from the Hundred to ODIs.
In the first ODI, she had opened the innings alongside captain Aylssa Healy but after the latter’s dismissal for 27, Litchfield showed maturity to hang in there in the extreme heat to score 88 and built a crucial 79-partnership with Ellyse Perry, as the duo stitched a 79-run partnership.
“It is so great batting with the skipper, Ellyse and Beth [Mooney], it makes my job very easy. It is nice to have a calm head out there. Sometimes my head is racing, but they are masters of their craft, they are really good at starting and keeping me going but also batting ridiculously well,” said Litchfield who had hit the headlines when she had scored a century against India in 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium.
Making a transition from The Hundred to the ODI Series, the left-hander said, “We want to move the game forward and play an attacking brand of cricket, so I have just got to find the balance between that. I just tried to take the game on and get the team ahead of the rate, and probably got a bit fixated on the reverse sweep, but then I got back that shot.”
Come Wednesday, the New Chandigarh stadium would be subjected to more reverse-sweeps from Litchfield’s bat.
