Alyssa Healy (Photo ICC)
Alyssa Healy’s masterful century led Australia to a 10-wicket win over Bangladesh which sealed the reigning champions’ place in the knockout stages.
Australia’s captain made it back-to-back World Cup hundreds with an unbeaten 113 in Visakhapatnam as she and Phoebe Litchfield, who made an unbeaten 84, chased down the target of 199 in just 24.5 overs.
Healy and Litchfield’s exploits saw Australia retake top spot in the group stage table and also broke the record for the highest successful ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup chase without losing a wicket.
A collective bowling effort from the seven-time champions, led by Alana King (2/18), had earlier restricted Bangladesh to 198, who found themselves 165 for nine having slipped from 127 for four.
Fargana Hoque got Bangladesh’s innings off to a good start after they won the toss and chose to bat as the openers put on 32 for the first wicket.
Megan Schutt (1/11) and Darcie Brown bowled well and saw the ball regularly fly through the slip cordon with Rubya Haider dropped on 22 by Litchfield.
The end of the ninth over saw Australia make the breakthrough as Schutt found Fargana’s outside edge and Beth Mooney took a good catch to her right in the slips.
Rubya was dropped again the very next ball – this time by Healy – but kicked on after that with back-to-back fours at Annabel Sutherland’s expense in the 16th over, taking her to 40 and the score to 67 for one.
But the 28-year-old fell on 44 shortly after as she could only find Tahlia McGrath at mid-on when trying to slog Ash Gardner (2/48)
Sharmin Akhter’s dismissal was a carbon copy of Rubya’s to hand Gardner her second wicket before Nigar Sultana Joty was stumped by Healy after being deceived by King’s tossed up delivery.
From there, the Australian bowlers turned the screw as the wicket of Shorna Akter, whose unbeaten 51 from 35 balls almost guided the Tigresses to victory over South Africa last time out, triggered a collapse.
The combination of King and Mooney accounted for the 18-year-old and Georgia Wareham (2/22) and Sutherland (2/41) then tore through Bangladesh’s lower order. The duo picked up two wickets apiece as Ritu Moni, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan and Nishita Akter Nishi all went cheaply.
Resistance came in the form of Sobhana Mostary, who played brilliantly for her unbeaten 66 and her late boundary hitting was crucial to her country setting a respectable target.
However, Australia’s opening batters made light work of their chase.
Litchfield helped herself to two boundaries from Fariha Trisna in the third over as the 22-year-old looked to break the shackles early on.
Healy took a similarly attacking approach as the skipper plundered three fours from Trisna’s third over with the mid-wicket boundary proving particularly fruitful.
The pair took their opening stand past 50 in the eighth over and Litchfield hit the game’s first six as the century partnership approached.
Rubya’s missed stumping gave Litchfield a life on 46 and the same batter then brought up the fastest hundred partnership of the tournament from 13.5 overs.
Healy reached her 19th ODI half century, and fourth at World Cups, in the 15th over and Litchfield notched up her first World Cup fifty in the following over.
With the exception of a top-edge that was put down by Fargana, Healy looked in imperious form and progressed to her fourth World Cup hundred from just 73 balls in the 24th over.
And after a series of late boundaries from the duo, Litchfield smashed the ball to the mid-off boundary to win the match in style.
Healy was full of praise for King after the spinner’s star turn put Australia on their way to a comprehensive 10-wicket win over Bangladesh.
King who was picked as the Player of the Match award set the foundations for Healy and Phoebe Litchfield’s record chase – the highest in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cups without losing a wicket.
“She made me look a little bit silly at times,” joked Healy. “It was amazing from her, just her ability to attack both sides of the bat with the real ripping leggie, but also the one that skids on. That’s pretty impressive.
“It was great to see her dominate with the ball today and to see her get the reward she deserved.”
Healy explained having an opening partner who looks to play in such a positive fashion helps spread the scoring responsibilities and hopes Litchfield can continue to build on her recent run of form.
“It’s been great [batting with Phoebe],” continued Healy. “I feel like she takes a lot of pressure off me, it’s not just me looking to take the risks anymore; it’s both of us. When it comes off, like today, it’s awesome.
“Even in the last game, I thought we started really well. Hopefully that gives us both a bit of confidence leading into the back end of the tournament. I thought Phoebe was outstanding today, and hopefully she’s happy with herself.”
King bounced back from going wicketless in her country’s win over India with her two scalps and led a strong and collective Australian bowling effort against the Tigresses, which also saw Ash Gardner (2/48), Georgia Wareham (2/22) and Annabel Sutherland (2/41) chip in.
The 29-year-old paid tribute to her fellow bowlers and highlighted the way they worked as a unit in particular as crucial to their success against Bangladesh.
King said: “I think the beauty of this group is that if it’s not someone’s day, someone else is there to pick up the slack. We have such great communication between all the bowlers, and with Midge [Healy} behind the stumps as well, she’s got the best seat in the house to know what’s working for the bowlers and what length is hardest to challenge the batters.
“We put it down to great communication between all of us. We try to get each other into really good positions, and we want the best for each other. Communication is key, and we pride ourselves on that.”
Despite qualifying for the semi-finals following the win at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, King insists they’ll be no let up from her or her teammates as they take on England next in Indore on Wednesday.
She added: “It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup. But no doubt it doesn’t stop here, we look forward to going back to India and taking on England and South Africa, two really big countries. It’s going to be some pretty insane cricket.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh face Sri Lanka next and captain Joty vowed her team wouldn’t let the defeat to Australia get in the way of their attempts to record a second win at the tournament.
She said: “I think it’s very important how we recover from this game. We have to learn from here and rectify our mistakes from this game. There are a lot of positives as well that we want to take into the last two games.”
RESULT
Bangladesh 198/9 from 50.0 overs (Sobhana Mostary 66*, Rubya Haider 44; Alana King 2/18, Georgia Wareham 2/22)
Australia 202/0 from 24.5 overs (Alyssa Healy 113*, Phoebe Litchfield 84*; Shorna Akter 0/19, Nishita Akter Nishi 0/24, Fahima Khatun 0/24)
Result: Australia won by 10 wickets.
