Alyssa Healy Blasts a Second Ton to Propel Australia into Cricket World Cup Semi-Finals
The Australian skipper has delivered brilliant consecutive hundreds to steer her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive win over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten on 113, coming just four days after her similarly brilliant 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the same Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with her opening partner (84 not out) to race to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I thought I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” she said.
Interestingly, the utmost expertise of Thursday’s run-chase as the duo added 202 runs came after possibly the team's shoddiest performance in the field under Healy’s stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the half-dozen chances that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
Since statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in 2013, the six missed catches represented the team's poorest 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 something we’ll reflect on,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King spellbinding continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring the team's target remained manageable.
Healy Delighted with Win that Seals Knockout Spot
Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which places her undefeated team top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain sped to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from Litchfield in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden Tournament Fifty
Left-hander Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Aussie duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a tough lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clear chance off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The recalled Brown bowled the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was still the team's most expensive bowling option, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both contributed, while 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 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took the team to their record total against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy meat by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India a few days earlier.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” said player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to face the English team and South Africa.”