Alyssa Healy has signed off from one-day internationals in style, hammering a record-breaking 158 as Australia thrashed India by 185 runs in Hobart.
Healy’s 98-ball knock at Bellerive Oval saw her set a new highest individual score by an Australian woman in ODIs on home soil, and combined with Beth Mooney’s unbeaten 106 from 84, led the Aussies to 7-409, their second highest total in the format.
Alana King (4-33) then led the way as India crumbled in the face of a mammoth chase, with Sneh Rana (44) their highest contributor as they were bowled out for 224 in 45.1 overs.
With Australia closing in on a massive win, Healy celebrated her final match in coloured clothes by rolling the arm over for the first time in her 298-game international career, sending down two overs that went for 12 runs.
Having swept the ODI leg of the multi-format tour 3-0, Australia will go into the one-off Test in Perth leading 8-4 having officially retained the overall series trophy.
Australia’s response in the 50-over format was emphatic after they lost the T20I leg 1-2, winning by margins of six wickets, five wickets and 185 runs.
After Harmanpreet Kaur called correctly at a sixth consecutive toss and put Australia into bat, India formed a guard of honour to welcome Healy to the middle in an ODI for the final time.
She rose to the occasion in her 126th and final ODI, re-writing the record books through a 98-ball innings that was pure Healy at her belligerent best.
Losing opening partner Phoebe Litchfield (14) early, Healy shared a 104-run stand with Georgia Voll – who is set to succeed her captain at the top of the order when Australia next play an ODI – as the Queenslander stroked a fine 52-ball 62 of her own.
But the afternoon belonged to Healy, who survived a close call on 24 when India’s review for lbw was deemed ‘umpire’s call’ before reaching fifty off 49 deliveries.
Toying with the Indian attack, the 35-year-old notched triple figures from just 79 deliveries, raising her Kookaburra to the Hobart crowd and embracing Mooney.
Battling cramp, she stepped on the accelerator, going from 101 to 150 in 16 deliveries without facing a dot ball, punishing anything loose from the Indian attack – which, thanks to a combination of her own pressure and the tourists’ choice to field just five specialist bowlers, there was no shortage of.
Healy’s innings finally ended in bizarre circumstances on 158, bowled attempting to reverse a rank full toss from Rana.
It was her second highest ODI score after her 170 in the 2022 World Cup final against England in Christchurch and her highest on home soil.
Among Australian women, only Belinda Clark has produced a higher individual score in the format, the 229no she scored against Denmark in 1997.
It was also Healy’s eighth one-day international ton, equalling Karen Rolton and behind only Meg Lanning’s 15 as the most by an Australian woman.
After the fireworks of Healy’s innings, which left Australia 3-281 when she was dismissed in the 37th over, Mooney ensured there was no respite for India.
The left-hander had played second fiddle throughout her 145-run stand with Healy, travelling at a run-a-ball for much of her innings before becoming more expansive in the death overs, as she brought up an 84-ball century in the final over of Australia’s innings.
A mini-collapse of 3-10 had seen Australia fall to 7-355 with 4.1 overs remaining, but hometown hero Nicola Carey (34no from 15) injected late momentum as Australia added a further 54 runs from the final 25 deliveries.
India were going to need to make history to reel in a target of 410 and their cause got off to the worst possible start when star opener Smriti Mandhana shanked a Carey delivery in the second over of the chase, departing for a four-ball duck.
Pratika Rawal (27 off 21) hit a brace of boundaries to put early pressure on the Australian quicks before she was trapped lbw by Annabel Sutherland, while Jemimah Rodrigues (42 off 29) found the boundary on nine occasions but came unstuck when Gardner entered the attack, miscuing a sweep down the throat of Hamilton.
A mix-up saw Harleen Deol run out for a sluggish 14 off 26, and when Harmanpreet was out lbw to King for 25, India were suddenly 5-115 in the 20th over, still needing 295 from 182 balls.
India’s middle-order had no answers for King’s leg-spin, as she clipped Richa Ghosh’s off-stump then had Kavshee Gautam out lbw in the space of three deliveries.
Deepti Sharma (29 off 47) and Rana (44 off 75) dug in to delay Australia’s celebrations, seemingly content to get in some batting practice ahead the Test during an interminable 63-run eighth-wicket stand that stretched 15.2 overs.
King eventually broke the stand and got a fourth with a loopy full toss that hit Deepti’s front pad, as India’s tail dragged the game out to the 46th over before Georgia Wareham, belatedly brought into the attack, took the final two wickets.
Australia had made two changes for the final one-dayer, with left-arm quick Lucy Hamilton making her debut, while Georgia Wareham also returned in place of Darcie Brown and an ill Megan Schutt.
The Australian camp also confirmed Kim Garth had returned home to continue her rehabilitation from a quad injury.
With time running out before the WACA Test, Garth is increasingly unlikely to feature in the pink-ball game but will re-join her teammates in Perth this week.
NRMA Insurance Australia v India Multi-Format Series
Australia lead the multi-format series 8-4
First T20I: India won by 21 runs (DLS)
Second T20I: Australia won by 19 runs
Third T20I: India won by 17 runs
Australia ODI squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India ODI squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Renuka Thakur, Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Kashvee Gautam, Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry, Harleen Deol, Pratika Rawal
February 24: Australia won by six wickets
February 27: Australia won by five wickets
March 1: Australia won by 185 runs
Australia Test squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare
March 6-9: Test match, WACA Ground, 4:20pm AEDT (D/N)
