“We’ve let ourselves down”: Australia skipper Alyssa Healy ahead of 3rd ODI against South Africa

Sydney [Australia], February 9 (ANI): Australia women’s team skipper Alyssa Healy believes that the team has let “themselves down” with their past performances against South Africa but have the opportunity to give their best in their next encounter.

South Africa clinched a historic ODI win on Wednesday against Australia in the 2nd ODI, which was followed by their first-ever T20I win on Australian soil. If South Africa manages to take win the game on Saturday the multi-format series will be level at 6-6 before they begin the one-off Test next week.

Australia have now lost three matches across formats in the ongoing season as they lost against West Indies in a T20I clash at North Sydney Oval.

“It’s plain and simple: you can’t afford to be sloppy and not adapt as quickly as we needed to. We’ve proven that over the summer, that when we’ve let ourselves down, even a little bit, in all three facets we are getting punished. Tomorrow’s a great opportunity to come out here and be really clinical and perform the way we know we can. We are still a really good cricket side, we showed in Adelaide how good we can be, just got to turn up tomorrow and do the same thing then do it repeatedly for long periods of time,” Healy said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

Healy’s career has seen her go through different phases of Australian cricket. She has been a part of the team when their team’s dominance was questioned.

“There was a period of time where cricket was really challenging for this group. We’ve had a lot of success over the last five or six years, yes, but there’s been plenty of times within that that this group has been challenged,” Healy said.

On the other hand, South Africa who missed out on the T20I series with a 3-2 defeat, are looking to take their opportunities and win the series.

“It is definitely not done. There’s one game to play and I think it’s all to play for. If we as a team can stick to what we did the previous match, we can go and win the series,” allrounder Eliz-Mari Marx said.