Alyssa Healy has delivered outstanding consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a merciless 10-wicket win over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just a few days after her equally brilliant 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
“I felt I was a below par with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the win and move on,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 came after perhaps Australia’s weakest performance in the field under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six catches that went down.
“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily succeeded,” she added.
From the time statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen missed catches marked the team's worst fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” Healy said.
This allowed the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat first, their highest score in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.
But Alana King mesmeric continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to making sure the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Confirms Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was thrilled to learn that the triumph, which puts her undefeated side top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the semi-finals. “That’s really cool,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she accelerated from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Impresses with First World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, reaching to her first World Cup half-century off 46 balls shortly after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest partnership by any Aussie pair at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the sluggish fielding display, the captain dropped the easiest of chances off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The recalled Darcie Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Thrive as Alana King Stars
In contrast, the slow bowlers excelled, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland strengthened her position as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their record total against the Aussies, but the total was rendered easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days before.
“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” said player-of-the-match Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We look forward to returning to the next venue to take on the English team and the Proteas.”
