Healy Fires a Second Century to Power the Australian Team into Cricket World Cup Final Four

The Australian skipper has delivered brilliant back-to-back hundreds to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket win over their opponents.

The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just four days after her equally stellar 142 that saw off hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to race to their goal of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.

“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and progress,” Healy remarked.

Ironically, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 runs followed possibly Australia’s weakest display in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for dropping two of the half-dozen catches that went down.

“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and luckily succeeded,” Healy continued.

Since statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities represented the team's worst 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 an issue we’ll analyze,” Healy commented.

It helped Bangladesh to eke out 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary compiling the maiden half-century ever for the Bangladeshi team against the world champions.

But Alana King mesmeric unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring the team's target wasn’t too challenging.

Healy Delighted with Win that Seals Semi-Final Spot

Healy was thrilled to learn that the victory, which places her undefeated team top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed.

The 35-year-old captain sped to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties.

Litchfield Shines with First World Cup Fifty

Left-hander Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and one maximum, reaching to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries soon after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.

In the first innings, during the subpar fielding display, the captain spilled the easiest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a difficult skied one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean catch off Brown but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire rejected their appeal.

The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the fastest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, going for 0-52 off her nine overs.

Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Stars

In contrast, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slips.

Other spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her position as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to thirteen.

Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the target was rendered easy meat by a side who had chased down 330 against India 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 Alana King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to going back to Indore to face England and the Proteas.”

Jennifer Martinez
Jennifer Martinez

A tech enthusiast and software developer with over a decade of experience in web technologies and digital innovation.