🔗 Share this article

Alyssa Healy has executed outstanding back-to-back hundreds to steer her squad into the last four of the World Cup, driving them to a commanding 10-wicket trouncing over Bangladesh.

Healy remained unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just a few days after her similarly impressive 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to race to their goal of 199 in just under 25 deliveries.

“I thought I was a below par behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” she said.

Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 came after perhaps 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 six catches that were missed.

“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and fortunately succeeded,” Healy continued.

From the time statistics was first recorded on fielding statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.

“Maybe it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll review,” the captain said.

This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.

But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s chase remained manageable.

The Captain Pleased with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot

The Australian skipper was thrilled to discover that the victory, which puts her unbeaten side top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, secures them a place in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed.

The experienced captain sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.

Litchfield Impresses with Maiden World Cup Half-Century

The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 deliveries soon after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to record the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.

In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, Healy dropped the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a tough lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the official rejected their shout.

The recalled Brown bowled the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowling option, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.

Spin Attack Excel as King Stars

In contrast, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.

Other spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her total to thirteen.

Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 runs off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Aussies, but the target was made to look easy meat by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side a few days before.

“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” said player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to returning to the next venue to take on the English team and South Africa.”