Alyssa Healy has executed brilliant back-to-back centuries to lead her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a commanding 10-wicket win over their opponents.
Healy remained unbeaten on 113, coming just a few days after her equally brilliant 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the same Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an undefeated 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 overs.
“I felt I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” she said.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the pair put on 202 followed perhaps Australia’s poorest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for spilling two of the half-dozen chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was initially recorded on fielding metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed catches represented the team's worst fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was crucial to ensuring the team's target remained manageable.
Healy Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot
Healy was delighted to learn that the triumph, which puts her undefeated team top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner later in the knock after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Shines with Maiden Tournament Fifty
The young batter Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her maiden World Cup half-century off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Aussie duo at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also did take a clear catch off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the official rejected their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown sent down the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spinners Excel as Alana King Leads
In contrast, the spinners thrived, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Other spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her tally to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the target was made to look easy meat by a side who had chased down 330 against India a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it won't end here. We look forward to going back to the next venue to face the English team and the Proteas.”
