Alyssa Healy has executed brilliant consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, motivating them to a dominant 10-wicket victory over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained not out on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her similarly brilliant 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to race to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 overs.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the win and move on,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the utmost professionalism of Thursday’s run-chase as the duo put on 202 came after perhaps the team's weakest display in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for spilling two of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and fortunately got the job done,” she added.
From the time data was first recorded on fielding statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed opportunities marked the team's worst fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” the captain said.
It helped the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever total in an ODI against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding continuous 10-over spell, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was vital to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place
The Australian skipper was thrilled to discover that the triumph, which places her unbeaten team at the top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's great news,” she said.
The experienced captain sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from Litchfield in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
Litchfield Impresses with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain spilled the simplest of edges off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a tough lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clear chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Brown sent down the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and another's not out 66 runs off 80 deliveries took the team to their record total against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a team who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” said star performer King. “No doubt it won't end here. We look forward to returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
