The Australian skipper has produced superb consecutive hundreds to guide her team into the last four of the World Cup, driving them to a merciless comprehensive win over their opponents.
The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113, arriving just a few days after her equally stellar 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Vizag stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their target of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.
“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the utmost professionalism of the day's run-chase as the duo added 202 runs came after perhaps the team's weakest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” she added.
Since data was initially recorded on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the six missed catches represented Australia’s worst fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Maybe it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll review,” the captain said.
It helped the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an ODI against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's mesmeric continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was key to making sure the team's chase wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Place
The Australian skipper was pleased to discover that the triumph, which places her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.
The experienced skipper raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the quickest century of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she accelerated from Litchfield in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone practically shot for shot towards their fifties.
The Opener Shines with Maiden Tournament Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and one maximum, getting to her first World Cup half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.
Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, Healy spilled the simplest of edges off a teammate and also failed to grasp a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean chance off the same bowler but failed to review when the official rejected their appeal.
The reinstated Brown bowled the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as Alana King Stars
In contrast, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to thirteen.
A batter's 44 runs and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their highest-ever score against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side a few days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” said player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate going back to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
