Alyssa Healy has delivered superb consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the last four of the World Cup, motivating them to a commanding 10-wicket trouncing over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113, coming just four days after her similarly impressive 142 that defeated hosts India at the same Vizag stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84 not out) to chase to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I thought I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the win and move on,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's chase as the duo added 202 followed perhaps the team's shoddiest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the captain scolding herself in particular for dropping two of the six catches that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and fortunately got the job done,” she added.
From the time statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities represented the team's poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
It helped Bangladesh to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But Alana King spellbinding unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was key to making sure the team's target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Win that Seals Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was delighted to discover that the triumph, which places her unbeaten side at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The 35-year-old skipper raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and ended 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 practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with First World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup fifty off 46 balls shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off a teammate and also was unable to grasp a tough lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the official rejected their shout.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Stars
In contrast, the slow bowlers thrived, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spinners Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and Mostary’s not out 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever total against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it won't end here. We look forward to returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
