AUS-W vs BAN-W

Australia have become the first team to secure a semifinal berth in this World Cup. Who would have guessed that! (Sarcasm, obviously.) They now head to Indore for their remaining fixtures against England and South Africa. Meanwhile, Bangladesh will fly to Mumbai to play against Sri Lanka and India.

But before that, tomorrow, the attention will once again move to Colombo (pray for a sunny day) where Sri Lanka will lock horns with South Africa. Do join us for that.

For now, this is Darpan Tikiya and Sourabh Agrawal waving goodbye. See you soon!

Alyssa Healy (Australia captain): "Bangladesh have proven in this World Cup that they are hard to remove. We tried our best. We didn't execute it that well. I thought I was a little bit poor behind the stumps today. We take the 2 points, we move on and focus on the next game. (On the dropped catches) It has been that kind of a tournament actually. We have been here and there. That's something which we will surely reflect on. We go to a new venue after this. Big fixture coming up against England. The girls will be ready for that. (On Alana King) It was just amazing from her. Her ability to attack both sides of the bat is pretty impressive. It was great to see her dominate with the ball today."

Nigar Sultana (Bangladesh captain): "We started really well. We did not lose too many wickets in powerplay. We should have gotten more runs. We did not bat the way we batted in the last game. We were also missing out on two strike bowlers (Nahida and Marufa). We wanted to give Rubiya Haider the opportunity to see how she is doing as a keeper. Today was a bad day for the bowlers. I think we are better than this. We have to learn from here and rectify our mistakes."

Alana King has been adjudged the Player of the Match for her 2/18 in 10 overs including 4 maidens, here are her words:

"I was really happy with how the ball was coming out, we spoke as a unit about keeping it tight and I was really happy that we kept them to a reasonable total. There was a bit of spin, I get really excited with that. The length was always going to be the key here, we have to stay away from the step hit region. Not too much (on what she has changed). I like to be clear at the top of the mark. The beauty of this bowling group is that if someone does not have their day, someone is always there to pick up the slack. With Midge (Healy) behind the wickets, she always has the best seat in the house to see what length is the key. We want to bowl for each other. It is always nice when you have the Q next to your name in the World Cup. It does not stop here, we go back to Indore and looks forward to taking on England and South Africa who are two big countries. Having Midge (Healy) behind the wickets is key, also the other spinners coming before me too."

8:29 PM IST: Australia have thumped Bangladesh. They win by 10 wickets, with 25 overs to spare, and become the first team to secure a semifinal qualification in this World Cup.

Alyssa Healy 113* (77) | Alana King 2/18 (10)
Phoebe Litchfield 84* (72) | Sobhana Mostary 66* (80) 

The defending champions have mauled Bangladesh. For the large part, this contest felt like a race between an expensive, brand new speedster and an old broken down car. While one team stuttered their way to the score of 198/9 in 50 overs, the other blazed through the run-chase in half as many.

Remember, Australia didn't even play their best cricket today. They dropped six catches and, even in their batting innings, gave the opposition plenty of chances. Alas, Bangladesh failed to grab them and Healy and Litchfield dashed past the finish line with plenty of time to spare.

Healy's second successive century must have rung plenty of alarm bells in the minds of every opponent. Remember, coming into this tournament, she had not scored a fifty in ODIs since January 2025 It confirms that her splendid knock against India was not a one-off thing. She is indeed back to being near her best.

Litchfield was equally impressive. Though, she might have to watch for her step out shot. She gave India a stumping chance early in the last match and gave Bangladesh a similar one too here. However, both times, the keeper failed to capitalised.

Earlier in the day, Sobhana Mostary and Rubiya Haider had top-scored for Bangladesh, while Alana King was the stand out bowler. The leg spinner was not afraid to give the ball air and generated some drool-worthy drift and turn. She accounted for the dismissal of the opposition skipper as well as Shorna Akhter, who scored the then fastest fifty of the tournament in the last match. Apart from this, King also bowled four maidens. 

24.5 Fariha Trisna to Phoebe Litchfield, AUSTRALIA WIN AND BECOME THE FIRST WIN TO QUALIFY FOR THE SEMIS. They have made a mockery of this target and completely decimated this Bangladesh bowling attack, they get home with more than 25 overs to spare with their openers out in the middle. This is a statement if ever there was one, the World Champions mean business.

It was a slot delivery around off and Litchfield smacked it past mid-off to complete the win, jubilation the Aussie camp as the two openers rejoice in the middle to celebrate this special effort.

24.4 Fariha Trisna to Phoebe Litchfield, GLORIOUS, this was overpitched at the stumps and Litchfield drives it back past the bowler gorgeously with the full face of the bat and beats both long-off and long-on.

24.3 Fariha Trisna to Phoebe Litchfield, Litchfield wanted to reverse that into the third man fence but cannot lay a bat on it. Misses it outside off

24.1 Fariha Trisna to Phoebe Litchfield, full around off, another one of the no-looker from Litchfield. Over cover but only a single this time

With that hat-trick of fours, it is now confirmed that Litchfield cannot get to triple figures. Australia only need 7 more to win (TFAR, sorry.)

23.6 Ritu Moni to Alyssa Healy, HAT-TRICK OF FOURS, she backs away again, the length is fuller but the result is the same. Slices through and not over the off side this time, this works too.

23.5 Ritu Moni to Alyssa Healy, AND AGAIN, rinse and repeat. Backs away to the leg side and pops this one over the off side, almost like a carbon copy of the previous shot.

23.4 Ritu Moni to Alyssa Healy, MOTORING AWAY, she wants to get this done with now. Makes room and slashes it over the ring on the off side, no stopping her.

The stands erupt to celebrate this splendid century from Healy! Her knock in the last game was greeted with silence as it came against the home team. But today, she gets the boisterous cheer she deserves. 

23.2 Ritu Moni to Alyssa Healy, consecutive hundreds for Alyssa Healy, she is loving life in Vizag. Gets there in just 73 balls, it has been all too easy for Healy who takes off her helmet and raises her arms to acknowledge the applause. She bunts it down to long-on for another single and yet another century for her in World Cups.