Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket trouncing over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113, coming just a few days after her equally impressive 142-run knock that saw off hosts India at the identical Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she combined in an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the win and move on,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's chase as the pair added 202 came after possibly Australia’s poorest display in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in especial for dropping two of the half-dozen catches that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and fortunately got the job done,” Healy continued.
From the time data was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six missed opportunities marked the team's poorest fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” the captain commented.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest score in an ODI against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King spellbinding continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s target wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Win that Seals Knockout Place
Healy was delighted to discover that the victory, which puts her undefeated side top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That's great news,” she said.
The 35-year-old skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from her partner later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
The Opener Impresses with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, Healy spilled the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a tough skied one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean chance off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowler, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Other spinners Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her standing as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
A batter's 44 runs and another's not out 66 off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to Indore to face England and South Africa.”
