Alyssa Healy has produced outstanding consecutive centuries to steer her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a commanding 10-wicket trouncing over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished not out on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her similarly stellar 142 that saw off the Indian team at the same Vizag venue. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to chase to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I thought I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll take the win and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s chase as the duo put on 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s poorest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six catches that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and fortunately got the job done,” she added.
From the time statistics was initially taken on fielding performance statistics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches marked Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous 10-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was key to making sure the team's target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Place
Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which puts her undefeated team at the top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain raced to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden World Cup Fifty
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a tough skied one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean catch off the same bowler but failed to review when the official rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
In contrast, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Other spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 runs and Mostary’s not out 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the target was rendered easy meat by a side who had chased down 330 against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” said star performer Alana King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to Indore to take on England and South Africa.”
