Alyssa Healy diary: Champion Aussie wicketkeeper opens up on life in the camp ahead of World Cup semifinal
As Australia prepares for their World Cup semifinal against West Indies, Alyssa Healy opens up on everything from cakes to windy Wellington, birthdays and squad dilemmas in her exclusive tour diary.
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Star wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy takes us inside the Aussie camp as they prepare to face West Indies in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday morning.
From birthday doughnuts to the worst cricket conditions she’s ever faced, here’s an inside view of the so-far flawless campaign.
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The ridiculous dream
We head into the semifinal as the only undefeated team in the World Cup.
Every time we go out there, we’re trying to play the perfect game.
It’s probably a ridiculous dream to try and hold on to, but if you can play the perfect game, you’re hopefully not going to lose.
We’ve probably been a lot closer to perfection than we think this tournament, yet we’ve probably been a bit further away from perfection as well.
I think what we’ve been able to do is win games as a team. There hasn’t been just one person doing all the heavy lifting.
As far as perfection goes, it’s been an ideal lead into what’s going to hopefully be two exciting games of cricket.
Squad dilemmas
The depth of our squad is a blessing as well as a curse. We’ve used 14 out of the 15 in our squad for our seven games this World Cup and all have played their roles brilliantly when they’ve come in.
It will be a tough decision for Motty (coach Matthew Mott), Meg (captain Meg Lanning) and Flegs (national selector Shawn Flegler).
There will be four really disappointed people sitting the sidelines in our semi-final, but what’s best is that those who will be sitting on the sidelines will be just as pumped for the 11 who go out there.
That’s what makes this team so good, our four really, really good players who sit on the bench are absolutely champing at the bit to get out there.
Our opponents
We’re obviously coming off seven wins and West Indies have won just three games, so when people look at that they would assume we’d be able to get the job done.
But West Indies are a really dangerous side. They can turn up and absolutely blow teams off the park when they’re playing really well.
And what talent they have – Hayley Matthews, Stafanie Taylor among them – and their spin attack has been doing some really good things.
As a batting unit, we’re going to have to be prepared for that.
Our strategy is to control what we can control, make sure we’re nailing our skills and execute what we can execute. The rest should then take care of itself.
So far undefeated
But some will say: “What about the loss you had to have”?
And I’ve been quoted many times as saying: “you’ve got to lose at some point” and I won’t shy away from that.
But some part of me almost felt that our final practice game against the Kiwis was our loss.
They mauled us by nine wickets that day, but it’s been excellent to see how this group responded.
Windy Wellington
We’ll be playing our semi in Wellington. We’re well used to the ground at Basin Reserve, but the conditions will be interesting to see.
The last we played there against Bangladesh dished up the worst conditions I have ever played cricket in.
The photos of us all sitting on the bench covered in towels to keep warm did not tell a lie: the wind was gusting up to 70km/hr and the bails had to be removed from the stumps. You’re standing at the wicket waiting for the wind to knock you over and it was hard to concentrate when you’re thrown off standing upright.
They’ve forecast scattered showers for Wellington on Wednesday. I never believe weather forecasts anyway, but regardless, we’re happy there’s a reserve day scheduled.
Birthday celebrations
I turned 32 last week (I wasn’t too pumped about that) and then Meg Lanning turned 30 the next day. Mitch sent me a box of doughnuts and I got a few nice care packages from home.
Our physio gave me a chocolate croissant.
One of the nice things about this group is that we’re good at making sure these things are celebrated with cake. When we tour at this time of year, we have ample cake because there are always lots of birthdays.
Meg and I also managed to sneak out for dinner and have a little cheeky glass of wine.
Generally we’re touring the subcontinent at this time of year. I’ve had a few Indian birthdays, I’ve had a Sri Lankan birthday, I’ve even had a Bangladesh birthday. I don’t often get to have birthdays at home with my family and friends, so you’ve got to make the make the most of it while you’re on tour.
Originally published as Alyssa Healy diary: Champion Aussie wicketkeeper opens up on life in the camp ahead of World Cup semifinal
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