Visakhapatnam, Oct 16: Skipper Alyssa Healy continued her golden run smashing her way to a second consecutive ton as Australia cantered home by 10 wickets and took a giant leap towards a Women’s ODI World Cup semifinal berth here on Thursday.
Asked to bowl, a disciplined Australia first restricted Bangladesh to a modest 198 for 9, and then rode on Healy (113 not out off 77 balls) and Phoebe Litchfield’s (84 off 72 balls) aggressive knocks to chase down the target with consummate ease in 24.5 overs.
Healy, who was struggling for runs, made a great return, scoring a stunning 142 in a record chase of 331– highest in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
It turned out to be a cakewalk for Australia as the seven-time champions showed their class while chasing down the paltry total with Healy and Litchfield coming out all guns blazing against the hapless Bangladesh attack.
Healy played her shots to all parts of the ground from the word go while Litchfield tried to match her stroke for stroke with her attacking intent as Bangladesh bowlers had no answers to their brutal assault.
A rejuvenated Healy decorated her unbeaten innings with as many as 20 boundaries, while Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum during her knock.
Litchfield drew curtains to the chase in style, hitting Fariha Trisna for two consecutive boundaries to complete the formalities inside 25 overs.
Bangladesh’s spin attack, considered as their main weapon, had no answers to Healy and Litchfield’s attacking batting.
Earlier, Bangladesh made a cautious start after opting to bat against the seven-time champions, with Rubya Haider and Shobana Mostary doing the bulk of the scoring.
If not for Mostary’s (66 not out off 80 balls, 9x4s) valiant unbeaten fifty and Haider’s start at the top, Bangladesh would have never really got closer to the 200-run mark.
In fact Mostary’s 66 was the highest individual score by a Bangladeshi batter against Australia in women’s cricket.
But Bangladesh batting unit never really looked at ease after opting to bat, and most of the batters struggled to rotate the strike.
Despite Haider and Mostary’s knocks, Bangladesh innings never had the momentum needed as it failed to put up a decent score against the defending champions.
Haider and Fargana Hoque shared 32 runs in nine over for the opening stand before the latter was the first to depart, when Megan Scutt induced an edge and Beth Mooney taking an excellent catch at the slip.
Haider, on the other hand, was in an aggressive mood as she played her shots, picking up eight boundaries during her 59-ball 44-run knock.
Haider beautifully drove a lofty half volley from Annabel Sutherland through the covers and then followed it with a top-edge pull to the boundary in the next ball.
Haider was particularly elegant in her drives as she smashed Ashleigh Gardner through the mid-off region in the 18th over before perishing two balls later.
Haider’s scratchy innings came to an end when she tried to slog sweep Gardner over mid-on but didn’t get the desired elevation, holing out to Tahlia McGrath at mid-on.
Gardner struck again in the 22nd over, removing Sharmin Akter (19), who gave simple catch to Sutherlabd at mid-on.
Skipper Nigar Sultana (12) struggled to 12 off 35 balls but was completely deceived by leg-spinner Alana King and skipper Alyssa Healy completed an easy stumping.
While Mostary held one end up, Bangladesh kept losing wickets from the other with the likes of Shorna Akter, Ritu Moni, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan all departing in quick succession.
For Australia, King (2/18), Sutherland (2/41), Gardner (2/49) and Georgia Wareham (2/22) shared eight wickets between them. (PTI)
