Alyssa Healy has delivered superb consecutive centuries to steer her squad into the last four of the World Cup, motivating them to a commanding 10-wicket win over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally impressive 142 that saw off the Indian team at the same Vizag venue. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84 not out) to chase to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.
“I felt I was a below par with the gloves, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the utmost expertise of Thursday’s run-chase as the pair put on 202 followed possibly the team's weakest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for spilling two of the six chances 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 luckily delivered,” she added.
Since data was initially recorded on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” the captain commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the maiden half-century ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring the team's target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot
Healy was thrilled to learn that the triumph, which places her unbeaten side at the top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from her partner later in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Shines with First Tournament Fifty
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Aussie pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy dropped the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the official rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as Alana King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and another's not out 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
