Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a dominant 10-wicket win over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained not out on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her equally stellar 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to chase to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a below par behind the stumps, and probably a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s run-chase as the duo added 202 came after perhaps the team's shoddiest performance in the field under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in especial for spilling two of the six chances that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily delivered,” she added.
From the time statistics was first recorded on fielding metrics in 2013, the six missed opportunities marked the team's poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an ODI against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to making sure Australia’s target remained manageable.
Healy Pleased with Victory that Seals Knockout Spot
The Australian skipper was delighted to discover that the victory, which puts her undefeated team top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her century off just 73 balls, the quickest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Impresses with Maiden Tournament Fifty
Left-hander Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her maiden World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries soon after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Aussie duo at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the official turned down their shout.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as Alana King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her position as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the target was rendered straightforward by a team who had chased down 330 against India a few days before.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said star performer King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
