Alyssa Healy has produced brilliant back-to-back hundreds to steer her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive trouncing over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished not out on 113, arriving just four days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to chase to their goal of 199 in just under 25 overs.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 followed possibly Australia’s poorest performance in the field under the captain's leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately delivered,” she added.
Since data was initially taken on fielding performance statistics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat, their highest score in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding continuous 10-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was key to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Place
The Australian skipper was pleased to learn that the victory, which places her undefeated team top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, secures them a berth in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain sped to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
The young batter Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-highest stand by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. 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 reinstated Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as King Stars
Instead, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her total to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 runs off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their record score against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 against India a few days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” remarked star performer King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face England and the Proteas.”
