After not playing any one-day internationals in Adelaide for nine years, finally Alyssa Healy and her Aussie teammates return

Cricket superstar Alyssa Healy made her one-day international debut for Australia at Adelaide Oval in 2010. But she hasn’t played an ODI here since. Until today.

• Jonassen the hero as Aussies pip Kiwis

For the naturally competitive Alyssa Healy, there was one thing about cricket that just simply dragged. Training.

“Put me on the park and I’ll compete and I’ll play to the best of my ability, but being able to compete on the training paddock was something I really struggled with throughout my whole career,” the Australian batter/keeper says.

But these days, keeping up with cricket at its top level requires so much more than on-field performance.

“The nature of women’s cricket is we’ve made a real shift in the Aussie team to focus on our athleticism and being fit, strong and well-rounded athletes,” Healy says.

“So for me, it was probably the timely kick up the bum that I needed to flick my mindset and work really hard in that area to give my body a chance to last for the amount of cricket we’ve got over the next 12-18 months. I’ve been pushing myself mentally more than anything else.”

And the results of finding that enjoyment have been visible for her. The Australian cricketers are given a checklist of where they’re at physically and are ranked across areas such as the dreaded 2km time trial, in either red, orange or green. Healy is proud that she’s been able to go from “a lot of orange to a lot of green”.

“So from that point of view, to be able to become a well-rounded athlete was something I never really thought I could do,” the 28-year-old says.

Alyssa Healy speaks on stage after being awarded the Female One Day International Player of the Year during the 2019 Australian Cricket Awards at Crown Palladium on February 11, 2019 in Melbourne. PHOTO: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

But how does all that green on her checklist translate on the cricket ground?

“Consistency is something I’ve struggled with over my career … I’d chip in here or there, but not be able to consistently score runs,” she says.

“This gave me the confidence that I could consistently perform for the team and that was noticeable.”

Noticeable indeed. Healy’s past 12 months have been nothing short of spectacular:

In November she was crowned Player of the Tournament in the World T20 where Australia regained the trophy, her WBBL team (Sydney Sixers) were runners up in January and earlier this month her WNCL team (New South Wales Breakers) won their 20th national title.

Next up, a fortnight ago, Healy was crowned Australia’s best female cricketer, named as the one-day and T20 player of the year and winner of the overall Belinda Clark Award.

Then to cap it all off, on Wednesday she broke a Guinness World Record for the highest catch of a cricket ball when she caught a pink ball dropped from a drone 82.5m above the MCG wicket (the previous record was 62m and she smashed the 49m mark set by former England captain Nasser Hussain in 2016).

Today, Healy and her Australian teammates will try to tick off another box in their stellar summer, by beating New Zealand in an one-day international at Karen Rolton Oval and retaining the Rose Bowl series trophy they’ve held since 1999.

She did it! Alyssa Healy catches the record-breaking ball which made her the new Guinness World Record holder for the highest cricket ball catch. PHOTO: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

And to do that in Adelaide and under the banner of cricketing great Karen Rolton, feels special to the right-handed batter

Healy made her one-day international debut on the Adelaide Oval in 2010, but hasn’t played in that same format in Australian colours South Australia since (Australia did play a T20 game against NZ in 2017 in Adelaide).

“It’s been a long time coming for (SA cricket fans),” she said. “It’s a great place to play and we find that the fans stroll on in no matter where we are. For the T20 World Cup in 2020, I think Adelaide is hosting five or six games down there as well and it’s a great opportunity to experience top level women’s cricket.”

The significance of playing at Karen Rolton — the ground named after SA cricket hall of famer and prolific run scorer — is not lost on Healy.

“Obviously it’s a pretty inspiring name in the women’s cricketing world and so for both teams to be able to go there to play under her banner is pretty special,” she said.

Alyssa Healy bats for Australia in a T20 game against New Zealand in October, 2018. PHOTO: Mark Nolan/Getty Images

“It’s a fantastic place to play cricket, all the facilities are first class, so we’re looking forward to going there and hopefully we get a nice, flat road to bat on and spend a little bit of time in the middle.”

In today’s game she’ll be looking to improve her run total — four — that she scored in the opening ODI at the WACA on Friday, in a nailbiting game that Australia won by five runs.

“They’re a pretty formidable side,” she said of the White Ferns. “The one-day format brings our sides pretty close together and they have some world class players in the top of their order, in Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine and Amy Satterthwaite who’s been in pretty good form.

“So from our point of view, we won’t take any of them lightly.

“The Rose Bowl Series is something that’s pretty special for both teams and one that Australia has held for sometime and the Kiwis are keen to get it back.”

The final game in the series will be played in Melbourne on March 3.

Come the end of March and Healy will head into her break fully prepared to spend a fortnight completely resting before she perhaps tries something new in her fitness regimen to keep her body fresh.

After all, there’s another packed cricket season ahead that starts in July with a much-anticipated Ashes series in England.