Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive centuries to lead her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a merciless 10-wicket victory over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly impressive 142 that defeated the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to dash to their goal of 199 in just under 25 overs.
“I thought I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll take the win and progress,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the utmost professionalism of Thursday’s run-chase as the pair added 202 runs followed perhaps the team's poorest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in especial for dropping 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 fortunately delivered,” she added.
From the time statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in 2013, the six dropped opportunities marked the team's worst fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King mesmeric continuous 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was vital to making sure Australia’s chase remained manageable.
The Captain Pleased with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot
Healy was delighted to learn that the victory, which puts her undefeated team top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's great news,” she said.
The experienced skipper sped to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the World Cup, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner later in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with First Tournament Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to record the third-best partnership by any Aussie pair at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain spilled the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a tough skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown sent down the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Other spinners Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the target was made to look straightforward by a team who had chased down 330 runs against the Indian side a few days before.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked star performer King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to face England and South Africa.”
