Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive centuries to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a commanding comprehensive trouncing over their opponents.
Healy remained not out on 113, arriving just four days after her equally brilliant 142 that saw off hosts India at the same Vizag venue. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run first-wicket stand with her opening partner (84 not out) to race to their target of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a below par with the gloves, and probably a little bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s run-chase as the pair added 202 followed perhaps the team's poorest performance in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper scolding herself in especial for dropping a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and luckily got the job done,” she added.
From the time data was first recorded on fielding statistics in 2013, the half-dozen missed opportunities marked Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
This allowed Bangladesh to manage 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat, their highest score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the first half-century ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was crucial to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Win that Seals Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was thrilled to discover that the triumph, which places her undefeated side at the top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The experienced skipper sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she accelerated from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
Left-hander Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest partnership by any Aussie pair at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding display, the captain dropped the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a tough lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as King Leads
Instead, the spinners thrived, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her standing as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the total was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India four days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” remarked star performer King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate going back to Indore to face the English team and South Africa.”
