Alyssa Healy has delivered outstanding consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the last four of the World Cup, motivating them to a dominant 10-wicket win over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished not out on 113 runs, arriving just four days after her equally impressive 142-run knock that defeated hosts India at the same Vizag stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with her opening partner (84 not out) to chase to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.
“I felt I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and probably a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” Healy remarked.
Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of Thursday’s run-chase as the duo added 202 followed possibly Australia’s poorest display in the fielding department under the captain's stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six chances that were missed.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and fortunately delivered,” Healy continued.
From the time data was first taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s worst fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” Healy said.
This allowed the opposition to eke out 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their highest score in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter compiling the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding continuous 10-over bowling performance, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was crucial to making sure Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Pleased with Victory that Seals Knockout Spot
Healy was delighted to discover that the triumph, which places her unbeaten team top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone practically shot for shot towards their fifties.
Litchfield Shines with First World Cup Half-Century
The young batter Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy spilled the easiest of chances off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Brown sent down the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the spinners thrived, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 deliveries took the team to their record score against the Australians, but the target was made to look straightforward by a side who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days before.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match 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.”
