Alyssa Healy has produced superb consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly brilliant 142-run knock that saw off hosts India at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s chase as the pair added 202 came after perhaps Australia’s shoddiest display in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the captain scolding herself in particular for dropping two of the six catches that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was initially taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped catches represented the team's worst fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll review,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an ODI against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But Alana King mesmeric unbroken ten-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was vital to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Win that Seals Knockout Spot
The Australian skipper was thrilled to learn that the triumph, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The 35-year-old captain raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest century of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she accelerated from Litchfield in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Shines with First World Cup Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries soon after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain spilled the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a tough lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean catch off the same bowler but failed to review when the official turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
In contrast, the spinners excelled, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened 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 record score against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate going back to Indore to face the English team and South Africa.”
