Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive centuries to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a dominant 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
Healy remained not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly impressive 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken double-century first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to dash to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I thought I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the win and move on,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the pair put on 202 came after perhaps the team's weakest display in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in particular for dropping two of the six catches that were missed.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily got the job done,” she added.
Since statistics was first recorded on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the half-dozen missed catches represented Australia’s worst fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll review,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to eke out 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s target remained manageable.
The Captain Delighted with Victory that Confirms Semi-Final Spot
Healy was thrilled to discover that the triumph, which puts her unbeaten side top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The experienced skipper raced to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner later in the knock after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with First Tournament Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and a six, getting to her maiden tournament half-century off 46 balls shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, Healy spilled the simplest of edges off a teammate and also was unable to hold on to a difficult skied one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also did take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their shout.
The recalled Darcie Brown sent down the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was still the team's costliest bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Other spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it won't end here. We look forward to returning to Indore to take on the English team and South Africa.”
