The Australian skipper has produced superb back-to-back hundreds to guide her team into the semi-finals of the World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive victory over Bangladesh.
Healy finished not out on 113, arriving just four days after her equally impressive 142-run knock that defeated the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
“I thought I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a little bit as skipper as well today, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” she said.
Ironically, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s chase as the duo added 202 runs came after possibly Australia’s shoddiest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the captain scolding herself in particular for spilling a couple of the six catches that were missed.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily got the job done,” Healy continued.
Since statistics was initially recorded on fielding performance statistics in the year 2013, the half-dozen dropped opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.
“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” the captain commented.
It helped the opposition 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 a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.
But the spinner's spellbinding continuous ten-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring the team's target remained manageable.
The Captain Pleased with Victory that Seals Knockout Spot
The Australian skipper was delighted to discover that the triumph, which puts her undefeated team at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's fantastic,” she said.
The experienced skipper raced to her hundred off just 73 balls, the fastest hundred of the World Cup, and ended with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.
Litchfield Impresses with First Tournament Half-Century
Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, reaching to her first tournament half-century off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-highest partnership by any Australian duo at a Women’s World Cup.
In the first innings, during the sluggish fielding display, Healy dropped the easiest of chances off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a tough skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also did take a clear catch off the same bowler but failed to review when the official turned down their appeal.
The reinstated Brown sent down the quickest deliveries at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.
Spinners Thrive as King Stars
Instead, the slow bowlers excelled, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t dropped one in the slip cordon.
Other spinners Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her total to thirteen.
Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took the team to their record total against the Australians, but the target was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 against India a few days before.
“It's fantastic when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” remarked star performer King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”
