The Australian skipper has executed brilliant consecutive centuries to guide her team into the last four of the World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket win over their opponents.
Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, arriving just a few days after her equally impressive 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to dash to their target of 199 in just under 25 deliveries.
“I felt I was a below par with the gloves, and probably a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the pair added 202 runs followed perhaps Australia’s poorest display in the field under the captain's leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six chances that went down.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily delivered,” Healy continued.
From the time statistics was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding display at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll review,” the captain said.
It helped the opposition to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat first, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.
But Alana King mesmeric unbroken ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was key to making sure Australia’s target wasn’t too challenging.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Place
Healy was pleased to learn that the victory, which puts her undefeated side top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The experienced skipper raced to her century off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she pulled away from her partner in the latter stages in the knock after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties.
The Opener Impresses with First World Cup Fifty
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 boundaries and a six, getting to her maiden tournament fifty off 46 balls shortly after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-best partnership by any Australian duo at a World Cup event.
In the first innings, during the subpar fielding display, the captain dropped the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also did take a clear chance off Brown but failed to review when the umpire turned down their shout.
The recalled Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowler, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.
Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Stars
In contrast, the spinners excelled, led by King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slips.
Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her position as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her total to thirteen.
A batter's 44 and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh 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 India four days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate going back to Indore to take on England and South Africa.”
