Alyssa Healy has produced outstanding back-to-back centuries to guide her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant comprehensive victory over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her equally stellar 142 that defeated the Indian team at the identical Vizag stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken double-century first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to chase to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo put on 202 runs came after possibly Australia’s poorest display in the field under Healy’s stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the half-dozen chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily succeeded,” she added.
From the time data was first taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed catches represented the team's worst fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” the captain said.
It helped Bangladesh to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever score in an ODI against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King spellbinding unbroken 10-over spell, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was vital to making sure Australia’s chase remained manageable.
The Captain Delighted with Win that Confirms Knockout Place
Healy was pleased to discover that the victory, which places her undefeated side 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 exclaimed.
The experienced skipper 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 accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls shortly after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a tough lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their shout.
The recalled Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Stars
In contrast, the spinners excelled, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her position as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's not out 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their record total against the Aussies, but the total was rendered easy meat by a side who had chased down 330 runs against the Indian side a few days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it won't end here. We look forward to returning to Indore to take on England and the Proteas.”
