Alyssa Healy has delivered superb consecutive hundreds to guide her squad into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents.
Healy finished not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to race to their goal of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.
“I felt I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of the day's chase as the duo added 202 followed perhaps the team's poorest display in the fielding department under the captain's leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and fortunately got the job done,” Healy continued.
Since statistics was first taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” Healy said.
This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken 10-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Knockout Place
The Australian skipper was thrilled to learn that the victory, which puts her unbeaten side at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her maiden World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest partnership by any Australian duo 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 tough lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the official rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Brown sent down the quickest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the team's most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as King Leads
In contrast, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her position as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their record total against the Australians, but the total was made to look straightforward by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it won't end here. We look forward to going back to the next venue to face the English team and South Africa.”
