Alyssa Healy has executed superb consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, driving them to a dominant comprehensive trouncing over Bangladesh.
Healy remained not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly stellar 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to race to their goal of 199 runs in just under 25 overs.
“I thought I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s run-chase as the pair put on 202 runs followed possibly Australia’s weakest performance in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper scolding herself in particular for dropping two of the six chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily got the job done,” Healy continued.
Since statistics was first recorded on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” the captain said.
This allowed the opposition to eke out 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But Alana King spellbinding unbroken 10-over spell, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring Australia’s target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Confirms Knockout Place
Healy was delighted to learn that the victory, which puts her undefeated side top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she exclaimed.
The 35-year-old skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with First Tournament Half-Century
Left-hander Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her first World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner got there off 43. They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a tough skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also did take a clean chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as Alana King Leads
Instead, the spinners thrived, led by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 runs and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their record total against the Aussies, but the target was rendered easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side a few days earlier.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said star performer Alana King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to face the English team and South Africa.”
