Alyssa Healy has executed outstanding back-to-back centuries to guide her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents.
Healy remained unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly brilliant 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 overs.
“I thought I was a below par behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll take the win and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the utmost professionalism of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 came after perhaps Australia’s poorest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily got the job done,” she added.
Since statistics was first taken on fielding statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” Healy said.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat, their best-ever total in an ODI against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding continuous 10-over spell, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was key to making sure the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot
Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which places her unbeaten team top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the semi-finals. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries she faced as she accelerated from Litchfield in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically shot for shot towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Impresses with First World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-best partnership by any Aussie pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy spilled the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also did take a clean chance off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the official turned down their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was still the team's costliest bowling option, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the spinners excelled, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her total to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the total was rendered straightforward by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India a few days before.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” remarked star performer Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to returning to Indore to face the English team and South Africa.”
