Bristol [UK], July 13 : Australia skipper Alyssa Healy didn't hold back after their third consecutive white-ball defeat against England on Wednesday at the County Ground.
Australia led the multi-format Ashes 2023 series by 6-0 after winning the Test match and first T20I, but three successive defeats have allowed England to make a comeback.
Healy recognizes the threat England possesses and she admitted that the Ashes series is now on the line. She sent a clear warning to her players to either see their situation as an opportunity to learn and grow or just an opportunity to make excuses.
"I mean, the Ashes is on the line now proper, isn't it? So if that doesn't galvanise the group, I don't know what it does. We obviously haven't been in this position a lot. And you know, we either see it as an opportunity to learn and grow, or we see it as an opportunity to throw excuses out there. So it's up to us to turn it around for the next two games, [because] that Ashes trophy is well and truly on the line," Healy said in the post-match conference as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
While reflecting on the match she said that they got outplayed and the reason for their downfall finally came down to falling short of the required total by 20 to 40 runs.
"It ended up going right down to the wire. Look, we just got outplayed a little bit at the end but thought we fought really well to keep ourselves in the fixture. It was a good game of cricket all round. We were probably 20 runs short with a bat, and then we bowled 20-odd extras so I mean, that's 40 runs in the game, so it's probably what's done us at the end of the day," Healy added.
Finally, Healy reflected on the areas where Australia needs to improve on ahead of the upcoming matches. "We've been showing it in patches," she added. "The way we took it as deep as what we did, shows it's still there. We've just got to be better, got to be sharper in different certain areas to get ourselves over the line. And that's what we're going to have to find over the next few day," Healy signed off.
Australia will face England in the second ODI on Sunday at the Rose Bowl Cricket Ground.
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