Alyssa Healy has executed brilliant consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, inspiring them to a commanding comprehensive win over their opponents.
Healy remained not out on 113 runs, coming just four days after her similarly impressive 142-run knock that saw off hosts India at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an undefeated double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to race to their target of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
“I thought I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and probably a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s weakest display in the fielding department under the captain's leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and fortunately got the job done,” she added.
From the time statistics was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities marked Australia’s poorest fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King mesmeric unbroken ten-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was key to ensuring the team's target remained manageable.
The Captain Pleased with Win that Seals Knockout Spot
Healy was pleased to learn that the triumph, which puts her undefeated team at the top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's great news,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain raced to her century off just 73 balls, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries 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 half-centuries.
The Opener Shines with Maiden Tournament Fifty
Left-hander Litchfield struck 12 fours and a six, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 balls soon after Healy got there off 43. They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the easiest of chances off a teammate and also failed to grasp a tough lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean chance off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire rejected their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowling option, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the total was rendered easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said star performer Alana King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate going back to Indore to take on the English team and the Proteas.”
