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Alyssa Healy has produced superb consecutive hundreds to lead her team into the last four of the Women's Cricket World Cup, inspiring them to a dominant 10-wicket win over their opponents.

Healy remained not out on 113 runs, coming just a few days after her similarly stellar 142 that defeated hosts India at the identical Visakhapatnam stadium. This time, she combined in an unbroken 200-run first-wicket stand with Phoebe Litchfield (84no) to dash to their target of 199 in just 24.5 deliveries.

“I felt I was a little bit poor behind the stumps, and probably a little bit as captain as well tonight, but we’ll accept the two points and progress,” she said.

Ironically, the supreme expertise of the day's run-chase as the pair added 202 followed perhaps the team's weakest performance in the field under Healy’s stewardship, with the skipper criticizing herself in particular for dropping a couple of the six catches that were missed.

“I felt somewhat let down with my glovework, and I needed to compensate with the bat, and luckily got the job done,” she added.

From the time statistics was first taken on fielding performance metrics in 2013, the six dropped catches represented the team's poorest fielding display at a Women’s World Cup.

“Perhaps it’s just that phase of the competition – we’ve been here a little while, and it’s an issue we’ll review,” Healy said.

This allowed the opposition to eke out 198 for 9 after they had chosen to bat, their highest total in an One-Day International against Australia, with a key batter compiling the first half-century ever for the Asian side against the reigning champions.

But Alana King spellbinding unbroken 10-over bowling performance, in which she claimed two wickets for 18 runs with four maidens, was crucial to ensuring Australia’s target wasn’t too challenging.

The Captain Pleased with Win that Confirms Semi-Final Place

The Australian skipper was delighted to learn that the triumph, which places her unbeaten team top of the standings on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, secures them a berth in the last-four. “That’s really cool,” she exclaimed.

The 35-year-old captain raced to her hundred off just 73 deliveries, the quickest hundred of the World Cup, and finished with 20 fours off the 77 balls she faced as she pulled away from her partner later in the innings after they had gone almost boundary-for-boundary towards their half-centuries.

Litchfield Shines with First Tournament Fifty

The young batter Litchfield struck 12 boundaries and a six, reaching to her first tournament fifty off 46 balls shortly after her partner reached hers off 43. They went on to achieve the third-highest stand by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.

Earlier, during the subpar fielding display, Healy dropped the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also was unable to grasp a tough lofted one off Annabel Sutherland. Frustratingly, she also did take a clean catch off the same bowler but didn’t have it reviewed when the umpire turned down their appeal.

The reinstated Darcie Brown bowled the quickest balls at the tournament so far but was nonetheless the team's most expensive bowling option, conceding 52 runs without a wicket off her nine overs.

Spinners Excel as King Leads

Instead, the slow bowlers thrived, led by Alana King, whose spell could have been even more productive if a fielder hadn’t missed one in the slips.

Fellow spin bowlers Georgia Wareham (two for 22 off seven overs) and Gardner (2-48 off nine overs) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her standing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with her two for 41, bringing her tally to 13.

A batter's 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 runs off 80 balls took the team to their record total against the Australians, but the total was made to look easy meat by a side who had successfully pursued 330 against India four days before.

“It's great when you’ve got the ‘Q’ beside your name in a World Cup,” said star performer Alana King. “No doubt it won't end here. We anticipate returning to the next venue to take on the English team and the Proteas.”