🔗 Share this article

The Australian skipper has produced superb consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket win over Bangladesh.

Healy remained not out on 113 runs, coming just four days after her equally impressive 142 that defeated the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs.

“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” she said.

Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the duo put on 202 came after possibly Australia’s poorest display in the field under the captain's stewardship, with the skipper scolding herself in particular for spilling a couple of the six catches that were missed.

“I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and luckily delivered,” Healy continued.

From the time data was first taken on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the six dropped opportunities marked the team's poorest fielding display at a World Cup tournament.

“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll reflect on,” the captain commented.

It helped Bangladesh to eke out 9-198 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the first fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.

But the spinner's spellbinding continuous ten-over bowling performance, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was vital to making sure the team's target wasn’t too challenging.

The Captain Delighted with Win that Confirms Knockout Place

Healy was thrilled to discover that the triumph, which places her undefeated side at the top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That's great news,” she said.

The 35-year-old captain raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.

The Opener Impresses with Maiden World Cup Half-Century

The young batter Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her first World Cup fifty off 46 balls shortly after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.

Earlier, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy dropped the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire rejected their appeal.

The recalled Darcie Brown bowled the fastest balls at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's costliest bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.

Spin Attack Excel as Alana King Stars

Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, spearheaded by King, whose spell could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.

Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her standing as the competition's leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to thirteen.

Rubya Haider’s 44 and another's not out 66 runs off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the target was rendered easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days before.

“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to going back to Indore to take on the English team and South Africa.”