Alyssa Healy has delivered superb back-to-back centuries to lead her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, inspiring them to a commanding 10-wicket trouncing over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished not out on 113, coming just a few days after her similarly brilliant 142 that saw off hosts India 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 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I thought I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 followed perhaps Australia’s shoddiest display in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in especial for dropping two of the six chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was first taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped catches represented the team's poorest 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 something we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest score in an ODI against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous ten-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was key to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Victory that Confirms Semi-Final Place
Healy was thrilled to learn that the triumph, which places her undefeated side at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's great news,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain raced to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries she faced as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Impresses with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy reached hers off 43. They went on to record the third-highest stand by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, Healy spilled the simplest of edges off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clear chance off Brown but failed to review when the official turned down their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her standing as the competition's top wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her total to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their record total against the Australians, but the target was rendered straightforward by a team who had chased down 330 against India a few days before.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to face England and the Proteas.”
