Alyssa Healy Fires Another Century to Power Australia into Cricket World Cup Final Four
Alyssa Healy has executed superb consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents.
Healy remained unbeaten on 113, arriving just a few days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the identical Vizag venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 runs in just 24.5 deliveries.
“I felt I was a below par with the gloves, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” Healy remarked.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 followed possibly Australia’s shoddiest display in the fielding department under the captain's leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six chances that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily got the job done,” Healy continued.
Since data was first taken on fielding metrics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches marked the team's poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll review,” Healy said.
This allowed the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their best-ever total in an ODI against Australia, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was vital to making sure the team's target remained manageable.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot
The Australian skipper was pleased to discover that the victory, which puts her undefeated team top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The 35-year-old captain sped to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone practically shot for shot towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with First World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls shortly after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-best stand by any Aussie duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding display, the captain spilled the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as King Leads
Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's not out 66 runs off 80 deliveries took the team to their record score against the Aussies, but the total was rendered easy meat by a side who had chased down 330 runs against the Indian side a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”