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Alyssa Healy has delivered brilliant consecutive centuries to steer her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, driving them to a commanding 10-wicket win over Bangladesh.

The wicketkeeper-batter remained not out on 113 runs, coming just four days after her equally stellar 142 that defeated the Indian team at the identical Vizag stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to chase to their goal of 199 runs in just under 25 deliveries.

“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and perhaps 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 Thursday’s run-chase as the duo added 202 came after perhaps the team's shoddiest display in the fielding department under the captain's leadership, with the captain criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the half-dozen catches that were missed.

“I was a little bit disappointed with my glovework, and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily delivered,” she added.

Since statistics was first recorded on fielding statistics in 2013, the six missed opportunities represented Australia’s poorest fielding showing at a World Cup tournament.

“Maybe it’s just that phase of the tournament – we’ve been here a while, and it’s something we’ll analyze,” the captain commented.

It helped the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat first, their best-ever total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first half-century ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.

But the spinner's spellbinding continuous ten-over spell, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maiden overs, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s chase remained manageable.

The Captain Delighted with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Spot

Healy was pleased to discover that the triumph, which places her unbeaten side top of the group table on nine points after four victories and a wash-out, guarantees them a place in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she said.

The 35-year-old captain raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest hundred of the tournament, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she accelerated from her partner in the latter stages in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.

Litchfield Shines with First Tournament Fifty

The young batter Phoebe Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, getting to her first tournament fifty off 46 deliveries shortly after Healy got there off 43 balls. They went on to record the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a World Cup event.

In the first innings, during the subpar fielding display, the captain spilled the simplest of chances off Darcie Brown and also was unable to hold on to a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Annoyingly, she also take a clean chance off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the official rejected their appeal.

The reinstated Brown bowled the fastest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.

Spin Attack Excel as King Leads

In contrast, the slow bowlers thrived, led by King, whose performance could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t dropped one in the slips.

Fellow spin bowlers Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both contributed, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to thirteen.

A batter's 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their highest-ever total against the Australians, but the total was made to look straightforward by a team who had successfully pursued 330 against the Indian side a few days earlier.

“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside 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 England and the Proteas.”