Alyssa Healy has produced brilliant consecutive centuries to steer her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant comprehensive victory over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained not out on 113, arriving just four days after her equally brilliant 142 that defeated the Indian team at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to dash to their target of 199 in just under 25 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the duo added 202 runs came after possibly the team's weakest display in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in especial for dropping two of the half-dozen chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the six dropped catches 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 an issue we’ll analyze,” the captain commented.
This allowed Bangladesh to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever score in an ODI against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But Alana King spellbinding unbroken ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was vital to ensuring Australia’s chase remained manageable.
Healy Pleased with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
The Australian skipper was thrilled to learn that the victory, which places her unbeaten team top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, 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 quickest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with First World Cup Fifty
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her maiden tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, Healy dropped the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their shout.
The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowling option, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, led by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Other spinners Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the total was made to look straightforward by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to take on the English team and the Proteas.”
