Alyssa Healy has produced brilliant consecutive centuries to steer her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant 10-wicket win over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113, arriving just four days after her similarly impressive 142 that defeated hosts India at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll take the win and progress,” she said.
Interestingly, the utmost professionalism of the day's chase as the pair put on 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s weakest performance in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for spilling two of the six chances that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily got the job done,” she added.
Since statistics was first taken on fielding statistics in 2013, the six missed opportunities marked Australia’s worst fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to eke out 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the maiden half-century ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But Alana King mesmeric unbroken ten-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to making sure the team's target remained manageable.
Healy Delighted with Victory that Confirms Semi-Final Place
Healy was pleased to learn that the triumph, which places her unbeaten side top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest century of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Impresses with Maiden World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, getting to her first tournament half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain dropped 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 chance off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the official turned down their shout.
The recalled Darcie Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
In contrast, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spinners Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the target was made to look straightforward by a side who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” said star performer King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate returning to the next venue to take on England and South Africa.”
