Alyssa Healy has produced superb back-to-back hundreds to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a commanding comprehensive win over Bangladesh.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113, coming just a few days after her similarly impressive 142 that saw off the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their goal of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.
“I thought I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll accept the win and move on,” she said.
Ironically, the utmost expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo put on 202 runs followed possibly Australia’s weakest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for spilling a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was initially taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll reflect on,” Healy commented.
It helped the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous 10-over bowling performance, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Victory that Seals Knockout Place
Healy was pleased to learn that the victory, which places her undefeated side at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a berth in the semi-finals. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The experienced captain sped to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the tournament, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from her partner later in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
Litchfield Shines with First World Cup Fifty
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her first tournament half-century off 46 deliveries soon after her partner got there off 43. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain dropped the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a tough lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire rejected their shout.
The recalled Darcie Brown sent down the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ costliest bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Other spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her total to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their record total against the Aussies, but the target was rendered straightforward by a side who had chased down 330 against the Indian side four days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
