Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a dominant 10-wicket trouncing over Bangladesh.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113, arriving just four days after her equally brilliant 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to dash to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the pair put on 202 runs followed perhaps the team's weakest performance in the field under the captain's leadership, with the captain scolding herself in particular for spilling a couple of the half-dozen chances that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately delivered,” Healy continued.
From the time data was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six missed opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter scoring the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring the team's target wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
Healy was thrilled to learn that the victory, which places her unbeaten team top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she faced as she accelerated from Litchfield later in the knock after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and a six, reaching to her maiden tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain spilled the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a tough lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean catch off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the official turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as King Stars
In contrast, the spinners thrived, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spinners Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland strengthened her position as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the total was rendered straightforward by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India four days earlier.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to face England and South Africa.”
