Phoebe Litchfield is a terrific batter, a classy left-hander with a variety of shots in her repertoire. Although she’s only played 13 ODIs, she has already shown her immense potential. In just 12 innings, she has crossed 100 twice and scored four half-centuries.
Her performance in the third and final ODI against India was unforgettable. She hit a magnificent century, contributing to a mammoth 189-run partnership with Alyssa Healy, who also scored a blistering 82 off 85 balls.
The amazing thing about her batting wasn’t just that she scored 119 off 125 balls with 16 boundaries and 1 six, but that she did it on a flat deck.
On a slow, dry surface where batting didn’t look easy, she looked untroubled throughout her innings. She made it quite tough for the Indian bowlers, who had to bowl incredibly well against one of the top ODI sides in women’s cricket.
Experts call Phoebe Litchfield a future star, but at 20 years old, she’s already making headlines. Such a talented batter can confidently negate swing early on, and then she has this incredible game against spinners. She has so much trust in her cross-batted shots and uses them all quite effectively.
Litchfield has already scored two half-centuries coming into the third ODI, and something big was surely brewing. Knowing how the pitch was behaving, she did an excellent job and consistently kept scoring above a strike rate of 95, yet made it all look quite risk-free.
This is an amazing skill in itself, particularly in ODIs where patience and aggression are tested in all phases of the game.
Her fielding is no less praiseworthy. She took an absolute stunner to dismiss Jemimah Rodriguez, who was looking settled and in good mood to take the match away from Australia. Australia definitely needed someone to fill the void created by the departure of one of their best batters, Meg Lanning.
Talking about Litchfield, she has carved her own niche in the team. A bright future lies ahead of her. For any team, playing successfully in India is always a major challenge.
The conditions are notoriously difficult, especially for a young player who has never played in them before. So, for Litchfield to have done well here is a truly significant achievement at this early stage of her career.
She will undoubtedly take a lot of confidence from this series. Having scored big runs, she finished as the highest run-scorer of the three-match ODI series against India, all while contributing to the team’s victories.
This kind of individual brilliance that translates into team success truly speaks volumes about the current state of Australian cricket, where young players like Litchfield are given the freedom to play with maturity and express themselves.
