The Australian skipper has delivered brilliant consecutive hundreds to lead her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive victory over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten on 113, coming just four days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with her opening partner (84no) to dash to their goal of 199 in just under 25 overs.
“I felt I was a below par with the gloves, and probably a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll take the win and progress,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme expertise of the day's chase as the duo put on 202 followed perhaps Australia’s poorest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in especial for spilling two of the six catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate 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 marked Australia’s poorest fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” Healy said.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King spellbinding continuous ten-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was key to ensuring the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was pleased to discover that the victory, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the semi-finals. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed.
The experienced skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the knock after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with Maiden World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, getting to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest partnership by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding display, Healy spilled the simplest of edges off a teammate and also failed to grasp a tough lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clean catch off the same bowler but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown sent down the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ costliest bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the spinners thrived, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her tally to 13.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 balls took the team to their record score against the Aussies, but the target was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days before.
“It's great 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 going back to the next venue to face England and the Proteas.”
