Alyssa Healy has executed superb back-to-back hundreds to lead her squad into the semi-finals of the World Cup, driving them to a dominant comprehensive trouncing over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113, coming just a few days after her similarly brilliant 142 that saw off the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84 not out) to race to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 overs.
“I felt I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” she said.
Interestingly, the utmost expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo put on 202 runs followed possibly the team's shoddiest performance in the field under Healy’s leadership, 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 luckily delivered,” Healy continued.
Since statistics was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed catches marked Australia’s poorest fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll reflect on,” the captain commented.
It helped the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But Alana King spellbinding unbroken ten-over spell, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to making sure the team's target wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Victory that Confirms Knockout Place
Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which puts her unbeaten side at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The experienced skipper sped to her century off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 deliveries soon after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Aussie duo at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding display, the captain dropped the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a difficult skied one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clear chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The recalled Brown sent down the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ costliest bowling option, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the competition's top wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India a few days before.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to going back to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
