Alyssa Healy has produced superb consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the last four of the World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive victory over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113, coming just a few days after her similarly impressive 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to race to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 runs followed possibly Australia’s shoddiest performance in the field under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the half-dozen catches that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and fortunately delivered,” she added.
Since statistics was initially recorded on fielding statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s worst fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” the captain said.
This allowed the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken ten-over spell, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was key to making sure the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Knockout Spot
The Australian skipper was thrilled to discover that the victory, which places her undefeated side top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, secures them a berth in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she said.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
The young batter Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest partnership by any Aussie duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain spilled the simplest of edges off a teammate and also failed to grasp a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the official rejected their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowling option, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
Instead, the spinners thrived, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spinners Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her standing as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her total to 13.
A batter'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 straightforward by a side who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said star performer Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face the English team and South Africa.”
