Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant back-to-back hundreds to lead her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket trouncing over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly stellar 142-run knock that defeated hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run first-wicket stand with her opening partner (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a little bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the duo put on 202 followed possibly the team's poorest performance in the field under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six catches that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and fortunately got the job done,” Healy continued.
Since data was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the six dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” the captain commented.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was key to making sure Australia’s target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Win that Seals Knockout Place
The Australian skipper was pleased to learn that the triumph, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The experienced skipper sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced 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 Shines with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
The young batter Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy spilled the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clean chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the fastest balls at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
In contrast, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by King, whose spell could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their record total against the Australians, but the total was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India four days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” said star performer Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We look forward to returning to the next venue to take on England and the Proteas.”
