Alyssa Healy has delivered outstanding consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a commanding comprehensive trouncing over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that defeated hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an undefeated double-century first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the win and progress,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the utmost expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s shoddiest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six chances that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately succeeded,” Healy continued.
Since data was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s worst fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” the captain commented.
It helped the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever score in an ODI against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous 10-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was crucial to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Delighted with Win that Seals Knockout Spot
The Australian skipper was pleased to discover that the victory, which places her undefeated side top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a berth in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain sped to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from Litchfield in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with First World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 deliveries soon after Healy got there off 43. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Aussie pair at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the official rejected their shout.
The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the quickest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the spinners thrived, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spinners Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her total to 13.
A batter's 44 and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their record total against the Australians, but the target was made to look straightforward by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said star performer Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to the next venue to take on the English team and South Africa.”
