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Alyssa Healy has delivered superb consecutive hundreds to steer her squad into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, motivating them to a merciless 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh.

Healy finished unbeaten on 113, coming just a few days after her similarly stellar 142-run knock that defeated hosts India at the identical Vizag stadium. This time, she shared an unbroken 200-run opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their target of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.

“I thought I was a below par behind the stumps, and perhaps a bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the win and progress,” she said.

Interestingly, the supreme expertise of Thursday’s run-chase as the duo put on 202 runs followed perhaps the team's shoddiest performance in the fielding department under Healy’s leadership, with the skipper scolding herself in especial for spilling two of the six chances that went down.

“I felt somewhat let down with my wicketkeeping, and I needed to compensate with the batting, and fortunately delivered,” Healy continued.

Since statistics was first recorded on fielding metrics in the year 2013, the six dropped opportunities marked the team's worst fielding display at a World Cup tournament.

“Perhaps it’s just that time of the competition – we’ve been here a while, and it’s an issue we’ll analyze,” the captain commented.

It helped the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had opted to bat, their best-ever score in an One-Day International against the Aussies, with a key batter scoring the maiden fifty ever for the Bangladeshi team against the reigning champions.

But Alana King mesmeric unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she claimed 2-18 with four maidens, was key to making sure Australia’s chase remained manageable.

The Captain Delighted with Win that Seals Semi-Final Place

The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the victory, which puts her undefeated team top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a abandoned match, secures them a place in the last-four. “That's great news,” she exclaimed.

The 35-year-old skipper raced to her century off just 73 deliveries, the fastest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries off the 77 balls she confronted as she pulled away from Litchfield later in the knock 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 fours and one maximum, reaching to her maiden tournament half-century off 46 deliveries soon after Healy reached hers off 43 balls. They went on to achieve the third-best partnership by any Aussie duo at a World Cup event.

Earlier, during the subpar fielding effort, the captain dropped the simplest of chances off a teammate and also failed to hold on to a tough skied one off another bowler. Annoyingly, she also take a clean chance off Brown but failed to review when the umpire rejected their shout.

The recalled Brown sent down the fastest balls at the World Cup so far but was still the Aussies’ most expensive bowler, conceding 0-52 off her nine overs.

Spinners Thrive as King Stars

Instead, the spinners thrived, led by King, whose spell could have been more successful if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.

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

A batter's 44 runs and another's unbeaten 66 off 80 deliveries took Bangladesh to their record score against the Australians, but the target was made to look straightforward by a side who had successfully pursued 330 runs against India four days before.

“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a global tournament,” remarked star performer Alana King. “No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We anticipate returning to Indore to face England and South Africa.”