Healy Hammers a Second Hundred to Send Australia into Cricket World Cup Semi-Finals

Alyssa Healy has delivered superb consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the last four of the World Cup, driving them to a dominant 10-wicket trouncing over Bangladesh.

The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally impressive 142 that defeated the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an undefeated double-century opening partnership with her opening partner (84no) to chase to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs.

“I felt I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” she said.

Interestingly, the utmost expertise of the day's chase as the pair put on 202 runs followed perhaps the team's poorest display in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the captain scolding herself in especial for spilling 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 bat, and luckily succeeded,” she added.

Since statistics was first taken on fielding metrics in 2013, the six missed opportunities marked Australia’s worst fielding display at a World Cup tournament.

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

It helped Bangladesh to eke out 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their best-ever total in an ODI against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.

But the spinner's spellbinding continuous ten-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring Australia’s target remained manageable.

Healy Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Place

The Australian skipper was pleased to discover that the victory, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she said.

The experienced captain raced to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties.

Litchfield Shines with First World Cup Fifty

The young batter Litchfield hit 12 fours and one maximum, getting to her maiden World Cup half-century off 46 balls shortly after her partner got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.

Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, Healy dropped the simplest of edges off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a tough lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also did take a clear chance off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the official turned down their appeal.

The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest balls at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.

Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Stars

Instead, the spinners thrived, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.

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

A batter's 44 runs and another's not out 66 runs off 80 deliveries took the team to their record score against the Australians, but the total was rendered straightforward by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side a few days before.

“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” remarked star performer Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate going back to Indore to take on England and South Africa.”

Michael Morse
Michael Morse

Maya is a data scientist and tech strategist with over a decade of experience in AI applications for enterprise innovation.