🔗 Share this article Alyssa Healy Hammers a Second Century to Propel the Australian Team into World Cup Final Four The Australian skipper has executed outstanding consecutive hundreds to steer her team into the last four of the World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant comprehensive win over their opponents. Healy finished not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her equally stellar 142 that saw off the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to dash to their goal of 199 in just 24.5 overs. “I felt I was a not at my best behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and move on,” she said. Interestingly, the supreme professionalism of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 runs followed perhaps the team's shoddiest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six chances that were missed. “I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the batting, and luckily delivered,” Healy continued. Since data was initially recorded on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the six dropped opportunities marked the team's poorest fielding showing at a Women’s World Cup. “Perhaps it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll reflect on,” Healy said. This allowed Bangladesh to manage 9-198 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions. But the spinner's spellbinding unbroken 10-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was vital to making sure Australia’s chase remained manageable. The Captain Delighted with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot Healy was thrilled to discover that the victory, which places her unbeaten team top of the standings on nine points after four victories and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the semi-finals. “That's fantastic,” she said. The 35-year-old captain sped to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest century of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the innings after they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their fifties. Litchfield Impresses with First Tournament Half-Century Left-hander Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum, reaching to her first tournament half-century off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event. In the first innings, during the subpar fielding effort, Healy spilled the simplest of chances off a teammate and also was unable to hold on to a difficult skied one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clear chance off Brown but failed to review when the umpire rejected their appeal. The reinstated Brown sent down the fastest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the team's costliest bowler, going for 0-52 off her nine overs. Spin Attack Excel as King Leads Instead, the spinners thrived, led by King, whose spell could have been more successful if Beth Mooney hadn’t missed one in the slips. Other spinners Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland consolidated her position as the competition's top wicket-taker with her 2-41, bringing her tally to 13. A batter's 44 runs and Mostary’s unbeaten 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 successfully pursued 330 runs against the Indian side four days earlier. “It's fantastic 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 returning to Indore to face the English team and the Proteas.”