Alyssa Healy joins the 100 club in T20Is

The 29-year-old is only the second Australian to achieve this feat after Ellyse Perry.

Healy has been one of Australia's best players in recent times and was also named the ICC T20I Player of the Year last December. Since the 2017 50-over World Cup, she has scored more runs in limited-overs cricket than any of her Australian team-mates. She was the Player of the Series in the previous edition of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.

Loved and respected by her teammates, Healy is a leader in the side, and one of skipper Meg Lanning's trusted confidantes. In fact, Lanning, who has a poor coin toss record, asked Healy to do the honours during the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Sydney on Sunday, 29 September! The plan appeared to have worked, as Australia won the toss and decided to bat first, posting a massive 217/4 and eventually winning the game by 41 runs.

As the Queensland-born player got ready for her 100th game, her team-mates were all praise for her in a special congratulatory video made by Cricket Australia.

"She is a great player and a really good team person as well. She is a leader within our side. Every time she goes out there in the middle, you're pretty confident she will make runs," Lanning said.

Healy, who made her T20I debut as a 19-year-old in February 2010, has come a long way in her 10-year career. "She is cheeky as ever, same person she was when she was a teenager," said vice-captain Rachael Haynes. "She just brings so much joy and laughter to a group. And I think the way she plays her cricket is really 'Australian' style – nice and brash and taking on the opposition and being really aggressive.

"She has certainly lifted our team at different stages throughout her career. But for the last couple of years she has gone to a whole other level. It's been really exciting to see her evolve as a cricketer."

Healy's rise in the last couple of years was also endorsed by all-rounders Jess Jonassen and Perry. "She probably never thought she’d be in this position, she had a rough trot at the start of her career in the T20s, but now she’s showcasing her ability," Jonassen said.

"She is such a dominant player but she is also such a dominant personality within cricket,"said Perry. "She always provides entertainment on and off the field, but she’s done a lot more than that too. There’s a serious side to Midge [Healy]. She deeply cares about the game, about her teammates and about what she wants to do as a player."

Healy herself is someone who never keeps a track of personal records and was pleasantly surprised when she came to know about her milestone.

"I actually hadn’t thought about it, Pez [Perry] asked me how many games I’d played, and I said I had absolutely no idea," she said. "But it’s a special milestone. We play a lot of T20 cricket but that’s over a 10-year period, coming in and out of the team, so it’s a pretty proud moment."