Alyssa Healy Fires a Second Hundred to Send the Australian Team into World Cup Semi-Finals
The Australian skipper has delivered superb back-to-back hundreds to guide her squad into the last four of the World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
Healy finished not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally brilliant 142-run knock that defeated hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with her opening partner (84no) to chase to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I thought I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of the day's chase as the duo added 202 followed possibly the team's poorest performance in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping two of the half-dozen catches that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time data was first recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped opportunities marked 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 an issue we’ll review,” Healy commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat first, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the first half-century ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken 10-over spell, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring the team's chase remained manageable.
The Captain Delighted with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which puts her unbeaten side at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, secures them a berth in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The 35-year-old skipper raced to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Shines with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a tough lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the official turned down their appeal.
The recalled Brown bowled the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the spinners thrived, spearheaded by King, whose spell could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her position 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 runs off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the total was made to look straightforward by a team who had chased down 330 against India four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said star performer King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to returning to Indore to face England and South Africa.”