Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a merciless 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just a few days after her equally brilliant 142 that saw off hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to dash to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a little bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s run-chase as the pair added 202 came after possibly Australia’s weakest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for spilling a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily delivered,” she added.
From the time statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped catches represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their highest total in an ODI against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King spellbinding unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was key to making sure the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the triumph, which places her undefeated side top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the semi-finals. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The experienced captain sped to her century off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from Litchfield in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Impresses with First Tournament Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first tournament half-century off 46 deliveries soon after Healy got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Aussie pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, Healy dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also take a clean chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the umpire rejected their shout.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
A batter's 44 and another's not out 66 off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their record total against the Australians, but the total was rendered straightforward by a team who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” remarked star performer King. “Certainly it won't end here. We look forward to going back to Indore to face England and South Africa.”
