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 commanding 10-wicket victory over their opponents.
Healy finished not out on 113, arriving just a few days after her similarly brilliant 142 that defeated the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with her opening partner (84no) to chase to their target of 199 in just under 25 deliveries.
“I thought I was a not at my best with the gloves, and probably a little bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the pair added 202 runs came after possibly the team's weakest display in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for dropping two of the six catches that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” she added.
From the time data was first taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped opportunities marked the team's poorest fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken 10-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring the team's target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the triumph, which places her undefeated team top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her maiden tournament half-century off 46 deliveries soon after Healy reached hers off 43. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also did take a clear chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown sent down the fastest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the team's most expensive bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as Alana King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, led by King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spinners Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her standing as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 and another's not out 66 runs off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their record total against the Australians, but the target was rendered straightforward by a side who had chased down 330 runs against India four days earlier.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to returning to the next venue to take on England and South Africa.”
