Alyssa Healy has produced outstanding back-to-back centuries to lead her team into the last four of the World Cup, driving them to a dominant 10-wicket win over their opponents.
Healy remained unbeaten on 113, arriving just four days after her equally impressive 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s chase as the duo added 202 came after possibly Australia’s shoddiest performance in the field under Healy’s stewardship, with the captain scolding herself in particular for spilling 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 bat, and luckily got the job done,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was initially recorded on fielding metrics in the year 2013, the six missed opportunities marked Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to eke out 9-198 after they had opted to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the maiden half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Place
The Australian skipper was delighted to discover that the triumph, which puts her undefeated team at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she said.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy got there off 43. They went on to record the third-best partnership by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, Healy spilled the easiest of chances off a teammate and also was unable to grasp a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean chance off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the official turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowling option, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their record score against the Australians, but the target was rendered straightforward by a side who had chased down 330 runs against India four days before.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said star performer King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to going back to the next venue to take on England and the Proteas.”
