Alyssa Healy has executed outstanding consecutive centuries to lead her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a commanding 10-wicket win over their opponents.
Healy remained not out on 113, arriving just a few days after her equally impressive 142 that saw off hosts India at the identical Vizag stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I thought I was a below par with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the win and move on,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the utmost expertise of Thursday’s run-chase as the pair added 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s poorest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s stewardship, with the skipper scolding herself in particular for dropping a couple of the half-dozen chances that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
Since statistics was initially recorded on fielding metrics in 2013, the six dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever score in an ODI against Australia, with a key batter compiling the maiden half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous 10-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to making sure Australia’s chase remained manageable.
Healy Delighted with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
Healy was pleased to discover that the victory, which places her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a berth in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain raced to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she accelerated from Litchfield in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament half-century off 46 balls soon after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain spilled the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a tough skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the umpire rejected their appeal.
The recalled Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Leads
In contrast, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the target was rendered easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it won't end here. We look forward to returning to the next venue to take on the English team and South Africa.”
