Alyssa Healy has executed superb consecutive hundreds to lead her squad into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant 10-wicket trouncing over their opponents.
Healy remained not out on 113 runs, arriving just a few days after her similarly impressive 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the identical Vizag stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s poorest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six catches that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
Since data was first recorded on fielding statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” the captain said.
It helped Bangladesh to eke out 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she took 2-18 with four maidens, was vital to ensuring the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the triumph, which places her undefeated team top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The experienced skipper sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone practically shot for shot towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with First World Cup Fifty
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament half-century off 46 balls soon after Healy got there off 43. They went on to record the third-highest stand by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain spilled the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clean catch off the same bowler but failed to review when the official turned down their shout.
The recalled Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowling option, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the spinners thrived, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spinners Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland strengthened her position as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
A batter's 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” said star performer Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate returning to the next venue to face England and South Africa.”
