Healy Hammers Another Ton to Propel Australia into World Cup Final Four

The Australian skipper has delivered superb consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant comprehensive trouncing over Bangladesh.

Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just four days after her similarly impressive 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their target of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.

“I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a little bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” Healy remarked.

Ironically, the utmost expertise of Thursday’s chase as the duo added 202 runs followed perhaps the team's weakest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping two of the half-dozen chances that went down.

“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” she added.

From the time data was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the six dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup.

“Maybe it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll review,” the captain said.

It helped the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their best-ever score in an ODI against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions.

But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken ten-over spell, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was vital to ensuring the team's target wasn’t too challenging.

Healy Pleased with Win that Seals Knockout Place

The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the victory, which puts her undefeated team top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she said.

The 35-year-old skipper sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their half-centuries.

The Opener Impresses with Maiden Tournament Fifty

Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her maiden tournament half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Aussie pair at a World Cup event.

In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding effort, the captain dropped the easiest of edges off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also did take a clear catch off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire turned down their appeal.

The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowler, going for 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.

Spinners Thrive as Alana King Stars

Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.

Other spinners Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Sutherland strengthened her standing as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to 13.

Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's not out 66 off 80 balls took the team to their record total against the Aussies, but the total was rendered easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 against the Indian side a few days before.

“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” said star performer Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to Indore to face England and South Africa.”

Amy Martin
Amy Martin

A software engineer and tech writer with over a decade of experience in AI and cloud computing, passionate about demystifying complex technologies.