Alyssa Healy has delivered outstanding back-to-back hundreds to steer her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive victory over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just a few days after her equally impressive 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to race to their target of 199 in just under 25 overs.
“I thought I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the utmost professionalism of Thursday’s chase as the duo added 202 came after perhaps the team's shoddiest performance in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately succeeded,” she added.
Since statistics was first recorded on fielding metrics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities marked 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 review,” Healy said.
This allowed Bangladesh to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat, their highest score in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken ten-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was key to ensuring Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Win that Confirms Knockout Spot
The Australian skipper was pleased to discover that the victory, which places her undefeated side top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That's great news,” she said.
The experienced skipper sped to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from Litchfield later in the knock after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with Maiden Tournament Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Aussie pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, the captain spilled the simplest of chances off a teammate and also was unable to hold on to a tough skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also did take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Leads
In contrast, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their record total against the Aussies, but the target was rendered straightforward by a side who had chased down 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to going back to the next venue to face the English team and South Africa.”
