Alyssa Healy has produced superb consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, driving them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents.
Healy remained not out on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her similarly impressive 142 that saw off hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a not at my best with the gloves, and probably a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the utmost professionalism of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 followed perhaps Australia’s poorest performance in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in especial for dropping two 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 luckily delivered,” Healy continued.
From the time data was first recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s worst fielding display 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 review,” the captain commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But Alana King mesmeric unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring Australia’s target remained manageable.
Healy Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was pleased to learn that the victory, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's great news,” she exclaimed.
The 35-year-old skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the World Cup, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from her partner later in the knock after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Impresses with Maiden World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first tournament half-century off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain dropped the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also did take a clean chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the official turned down their shout.
The reinstated Brown sent down the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was still the team's costliest bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as King Stars
Instead, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's not out 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their record score against the Aussies, 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 World Cup,” said star performer King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate returning to the next venue to take on the English team and the Proteas.”
