Alyssa Healy has executed outstanding back-to-back hundreds to guide her squad into the semi-finals of the World Cup, driving them to a dominant comprehensive victory over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to chase to their goal of 199 in just under 25 overs.
“I thought I was a not at my best with the gloves, and probably a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme expertise of the day's chase as the duo put on 202 runs followed perhaps the team's shoddiest display in the field under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six 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,” Healy continued.
Since data was first taken on fielding metrics in 2013, the half-dozen missed catches represented the team's poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll review,” the captain commented.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat, their highest score in an ODI against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous 10-over bowling performance, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was key to making sure Australia’s chase remained manageable.
The Captain Delighted with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
The Australian skipper was pleased to learn that the triumph, which places 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 said.
The 35-year-old skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she faced as she accelerated from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with First Tournament Fifty
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and a six, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 balls soon after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain spilled the simplest of chances off a teammate and also was unable to hold on to a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also did take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire rejected their shout.
The recalled Brown bowled the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was still the team's costliest bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Stars
In contrast, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her position as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her total to thirteen.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the total was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face the English team and South Africa.”
