🔗 Share this article Alyssa Healy Blasts Another Hundred to Send the Australian Team into World Cup Semi-Finals Alyssa Healy has executed brilliant consecutive hundreds to lead her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket trouncing over their opponents. Healy finished unbeaten on 113 runs, coming just four days after her similarly impressive 142 that saw off the Indian team at the same Visakhapatnam venue. This time, she shared an unbroken double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to race to their target of 199 in just under 25 overs. “I felt I was a not at my best with the gloves, and perhaps a little bit as captain as well today, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” she said. Interestingly, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s run-chase as the duo added 202 runs came after perhaps Australia’s poorest performance in the fielding department under the captain's leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in especial for dropping a couple of the six chances that went down. “I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily succeeded,” she added. From the time data was initially taken on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the half-dozen missed opportunities represented Australia’s worst fielding showing at a World Cup tournament. “Maybe it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” Healy said. This allowed the opposition to manage 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat first, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against Australia, with Sobhana Mostary scoring the maiden half-century ever for the Asian side against the world champions. But the spinner's spellbinding continuous 10-over spell, in which she took two wickets for 18 runs with four maiden overs, was vital to ensuring the team's chase wasn’t too challenging. Healy Pleased with Victory that Seals Semi-Final Spot The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the triumph, which puts her unbeaten team at the top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed. The experienced captain raced to her century off just 73 balls, the quickest century of the World Cup, and finished with 20 boundaries off the 77 deliveries she confronted as she accelerated from her partner later in the knock after they had gone almost shot for shot towards their fifties. The Opener Shines with First Tournament Half-Century The young batter Litchfield hit 12 fours and a six, getting to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls soon after her partner got there off 43. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event. In the first innings, during the subpar fielding effort, Healy dropped the easiest of edges off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a difficult skied one off another bowler. Frustratingly, she also did take a clear catch off Brown but failed to review when the official rejected their shout. The reinstated Darcie Brown sent down the quickest deliveries at the World Cup so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowling option, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs. Spin Attack Thrive as Alana King Stars Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by Alana King, whose performance could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips. Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (two for 22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (two for 48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Annabel Sutherland strengthened her standing as the competition's top wicket-taker with her two for 41, taking her tally to 13. Rubya Haider’s 44 runs and Mostary’s not out 66 off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their highest-ever total against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy meat by a team who had chased down 330 runs against India a few days earlier. “It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a global tournament,” remarked player-of-the-match King. “Certainly it won't end here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face England and South Africa.”