Did ‘double rotation in the nets’ to iron out batting flaws: Australia’s Alyssa Healy

Mount Maunganui (New Zealand), March 9 (SocialNews.XYZ) Australian opener Alyssa Healy revealed on Wednesday that she had to do exhausting "double rotation in the nets" before the ICC Women's World Cup game against Pakistan on Tuesday in order to overcome the disappointment of scoring just 28 runs in the thrilling 12-run win over reigning champions England in the tournament opener.

Healy spent extra hours at the nets to iron out the batting flaws to finally flourish with a 79-ball 72 as the six-time champions defeated the Bismah Maroof-led Pakistan by seven wickets with 92 balls remaining.

Pakistan had set the 2013 winners just 191 to win at the Bay Oval on Tuesday. Despite an unbeaten 78 from Maroof, a slow scoring rate and early wickets hampered their progress.

Healy spent over 100 minutes at the crease in her 79-ball knock and was relieved to grind out some runs after a gruelling double net session in preparation on Monday, as well as not feeling at her fluent best out in the middle.

"I was exhausted doing a double rotation in the nets, I was absolutely. The wickets were actually pretty similar. They ragged a little bit on Monday, so that was good and it didn't feel comfortable at any point today," said Healy.

"So I guess that's a positive for me leading into the rest of the tournament -- to back myself to make those scratchy runs and hopefully when things get going I can get some more flow about my batting and bat like I know I can."

After crossing the 300-run barrier against England and winning with 15.2 overs to spare on Tuesday against Pakistan, Australia's batting line-up has shown plenty of form in the early stages of the tournament here. And wicket-keeper Healy insisted the side back their star-studded top six to get plenty of runs on the board to help them maintain their winning start to the competition.

"We can't all be firing at one point in time, but we back ourselves to pick up where someone else left off. That's just the beauty of our line-up that we take the pressure off one another and it's a really, really strong top six, and then you throw in what we've got after that, and it's a really explosive, middle and low order.

"So it is our strength and we back our bowling attack to be able to defend whatever our batting group can get.

"We're playing some really good cricket and hopefully we can continue doing that right through the tournament," added Healy.

Source: IANS