Heather Graham’s first response after Australia’s extraordinary Super-Over loss to India was feeling like she needed to blubber.
After all, she’d produced a possible match-winning spell on her T20I debut in Mumbai to take Sunday’s tied match into ‘further time’ solely to then fail to execute her finest bowling within the Super Over and get clattered for 20 runs.
As India ended up successful that shoot-out by 4 runs – Australia’s first defeat in any format in 2022 – she admitted: “When I came off the pitch, I probably wanted to cry to be completely to be honest because I didn’t execute what I wanted.
“Sometimes you’ve got simply bought to take it with a pinch of salt – and that is simply cricket for you.”
And then it began to sink in for Graham.
This actually wasn’t a day to scold herself, but one to celebrate for the whole of women’s cricket – a belter that went down to the wire, played in a magnificent atmosphere in front of a crowd of 47,000 and a true showcase for the sport.
What’s more, she’d played a remarkable central role, taking 3-22 with the best bowling of the match to get Australia into a position to win before later getting the biggest surprise of Alyssa Healy telling her she’d be the Super-Over bowler.
“I stated, ‘oh nice, that is enjoyable’,” recalled the Tasmania and Hurricanes allrounder.
She made it sound almost workaday – but it was like nothing the 26-year-old had ever experienced before.
“I’m unsure you may examine,” she said. “We get about 3000, 4000 max within the WBBL, so to have the ability to come out in entrance of 47,000, yeah, it was a tremendous expertise.
“I turned to Phoebe (Litchfield) who was debuting as well and said, ‘like, this is insane’. We just soaked it all in. It’s incredible to play in front of a crowd like that and something I’ll treasure forever.”
Ultimately, she got here off second finest however the entire expertise left her thrilled in regards to the prospects for not simply the remainder of this good five-match sequence – match three, with the scores locked at 1-1, takes place at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday – but additionally for February’s T20 World Cup title defence.
“We take massive learnings from this match going into the World Cup – the way we were able to battle through that bowling innings and be able to take it to a Super Over was an incredible feat for our bowlers and probably gives us a load of confidence.
“This match showcases the crowds girls’s cricket can get and the way thrilling it may be – there’s not too many Super Overs in world cricket, it was fairly particular for each groups.”
It’s been fairly particular thus far for Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath, who between them have scored 281 runs – Mooney 171 and McGrath 110 – compiling century stands in each video games with out but being dismissed.
