🔗 Share this article Healy Blasts Another Hundred to Send the Australian Team into Cricket World Cup Final Four The Australian skipper has executed brilliant back-to-back centuries to lead her team into the last four of the World Cup, motivating them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents. The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just four days after her equally stellar 142 that saw off the Indian team at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she shared an undefeated 200-run first-wicket stand with her opening partner (84no) to race to their target of 199 runs in just 24.5 overs. “I felt I was a little bit poor with the gloves, and probably a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” Healy remarked. Ironically, the utmost expertise of the day's chase as the duo put on 202 runs followed possibly Australia’s weakest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s stewardship, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for spilling two of the six chances that went down. “I was a little bit disappointed with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily delivered,” Healy continued. Since statistics was first recorded on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the half-dozen dropped catches represented the team's worst fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup. “Maybe 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 Bangladesh to manage 9-198 after they had opted to bat, their highest total in an ODI against the Aussies, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the first half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions. But Alana King mesmeric continuous 10-over bowling performance, in which she took 2-18 with four maiden overs, was key to making sure Australia’s target remained manageable. The Captain Delighted with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot Healy was thrilled to discover that the triumph, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a berth in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she exclaimed. The experienced captain raced to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the fastest century of the World Cup, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she accelerated from Litchfield in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties. The Opener Impresses with Maiden World Cup Half-Century The young batter Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum, reaching to her maiden World Cup fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after her partner got there off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best stand by any Aussie pair at a World Cup event. Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult lofted one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also did take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the umpire rejected their appeal. The reinstated Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the Aussies’ costliest bowler, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs. Spinners Excel as King Stars Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, spearheaded by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slips. Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine) both contributed, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to thirteen. Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and Mostary’s not out 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever score against the Aussies, but the total was rendered easy meat by a team who had successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier. “It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” remarked player-of-the-match Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate going back to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”