IT was a historic match over in India for the Australian women’s cricket team, as they pulled off the second biggest chase in women’s ODI history to defeat India in the first ODI of the series.

One of the key pillars of that chase was young star Phoebe Litchfield.

The young star may be only new to the international game, but the composure with which she batted overnight Australian time showed a level head beyond her years, both age and career length wise.

Litchfield top scored for the Australians as they chased down India’s 8/282 for the win, with with her 78 making her become the second Australian women to score 400 runs in a calendar year before her 21st birthday. The first was none other than recently retired former skipper Meg Lanning.

In a disastrous first over for the Australians, all Litchfield could do was stand up the other end as her captain Alyssa Healy was dismissed off the third ball of the innings.

But when she finally got her go at the strikers end she was not wasting time settling in, striking her first runs off the very first ball she faced. She then got to stand at the non-strikers end as Ellyse Perry also got going, striking 10 runs off the next two balls.

It was a composed innings from Litchfield. She did not overhit the ball, more just guiding the ball around the pitch. She also used much of the different areas of the pitch, not relying on one type of shot or one particular area of the field to score all her runs.

Her first boundary came after she had faced an over worth of balls, striking the ball straight and square past point down to the boundary. That was the first of nine boundaries, with seven more fours and a six to come.

She and Perry steadied the ship for the Australians, putting on a 148-run partnership in the space of 25 overs. Unfortunately Perry fell, and then Litchfield fell only almost five overs later after she was clean bowled by Sneh Rana.

The Australians had a large target to chase down and after the first over it looked unlikely, but thanks to Litchfield and Perry, the impossible became possible.