Phoebe Litchfield is one of the rising stars of Australian women’s cricket, and the teenager recently revealed that she modeled her game on fellow international Beth Mooney.
One of the world’s top batsmen, her left-handed Mooney hit her 78 from her 92 in her eight-wicket victory over Pakistan in Brisbane on Monday. , presented Litchfield her debut her ODI cap.
The pair opened with a run chase, but Mooney was quickly out with her 1. Litchfield pushed on and along with her captain Meg Lanning (67 of 76) led Australia to victory in an innings in which Mooney was proud of her.
Litchfield credits her father Andrew for giving her the technical foundations of cricket, while her Chase Space champion Mooney provided her with a batting plan. “Recently, I’ve been watching Beth Mooney, especially in T20 matches, how she’s doing it,” Litchfield said. “She doesn’t have to beat her 6’s and 4’s. She just goes out and collects, so she took inspiration from her.”
“I think I’ve improved my temperament and my power game. I was a ‘Nürdeler’ in my early days. We’re going to be third and score a lot of runs from behind the wicket, so we’ve been working on that. Temperament [clever]… If I had put the ball down today, my old self would have hit the ball first.
Litchfield piled up the innings admirably. She served early, punishing only loose deliveries before blowing out on the bottom of her knock, lofting drive cleanly to the middle and cooling off for six.
It was fitting that the headstrong Mooney made her hat presentation. So she prepared a speech and said many positive things about the debutante.
“She was very kind and gave me notes [of the speech]. I have it in my cricket kit and hopefully it will stay there for the rest of my long career,” Litchfield said.
Recently retired Rachel Haynes and injured Alyssa Healy opened last year’s ODI Australia, where they played in last year’s ODI World Cup.
Litchfield has been modest about her future prospects ahead of the T20 World Cup, where she tours South Africa with Healy after returning from a calf injury.
“Alyssa Healy has a spot at the top of the standings because of her injury and I raise my hand, but look at the success of Midge (Healy) and Mooney and even Rachel. No,” she said.
“It’s nice to be able to carry around a drink for a long time. I am happy just to be in this group. If I have the chance, I will participate, but I am very happy to see Midge again. ”