Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive centuries to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive win over Bangladesh.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Vizag stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to chase to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 came after perhaps Australia’s weakest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the captain scolding herself in especial for spilling two of the six chances that were missed.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time data was first recorded on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed opportunities marked Australia’s worst fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen 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 reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous ten-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was key to ensuring Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
Healy was thrilled to learn that the triumph, which puts her unbeaten team top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guarantees them a place in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she said.
The experienced skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with First World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum, reaching to her maiden tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after Healy got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, Healy spilled the easiest of chances off a teammate and also was unable to hold on to a tough skied one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clear chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the official rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the quickest balls at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
A batter's 44 runs and another's not out 66 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 chased down 330 against India a few days before.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said star performer Alana King. “Certainly it won't end here. We look forward to returning to the next venue to face the English team and South Africa.”
