The Australian skipper has produced brilliant consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a merciless 10-wicket win over Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly stellar 142-run knock that saw off the Indian team at the identical Vizag stadium. This time, she combined in an undefeated 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to chase to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll take the win and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the pair added 202 followed possibly the team's weakest display in the fielding department under Healy’s stewardship, with the captain scolding herself in particular for spilling a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“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 statistics was initially taken on fielding performance statistics in 2013, the half-dozen missed opportunities marked Australia’s worst fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the competition – 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, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the maiden half-century ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous ten-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was vital to ensuring Australia’s chase wasn’t too challenging.
Healy Delighted with Win that Seals Knockout Place
Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which puts her unbeaten side at the top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she exclaimed.
The experienced captain sped to her hundred off just 73 balls, the fastest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she confronted as she accelerated from her partner later in the innings after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with Maiden Tournament Fifty
Left-hander Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding effort, Healy spilled the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to hold on to a tough skied one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clean chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the official rejected their shout.
The recalled Brown bowled the quickest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the Aussies’ costliest bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as King Leads
In contrast, the spinners thrived, led by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 deliveries took the team to their highest-ever total against the Aussies, but the target was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to the next venue to face the English team and South Africa.”
