Women's Cricket

The star opener has scored a sensational century as Australia seek to bat England out of the World Cup final.

She now has back-to-back hundreds after a devastating knock against the West Indies in the semi-final.The loss of Haynes has slowed Australia down a touch, but Healy’s aggression had already put her side in a commanding position.A big star stands up on the biggest stage. That was more than any other player.But another Healy boundary over cover has erased that record, too.A double ton is well within her reach.Healy’s knock just keeps getting better.She has now cracked 22 boundaries - many of them over the off-side field - as Australia push towards a score in excess of 350 runs.Mooney, meanwhile, has scored at better than a run per ball from the moment she took guard.There is seemingly no stopping this Australian batting order.Mooney picked up where Haynes left off, and Healy hasn’t stopped taking England on from the moment she was dropped.Australia is looking at a total of 350 here.The Christchurch pitch is placid, but that’s enormous in a high stakes match.Alyssa Healy is the first woman or man to make consecutive centuries in the semi and final of a World Cup.Her incredible feat, plus the composed contribution by Rachael Haynes in an opening stand worth 160, set Australia up for the final 10 overs with the highest ever tally in a World Cup final on offer.In keeping with their flexible approach, the Australians promoted T20 opener Beth Mooney to No. 3 alongside Healy, reprising their double act in the 2020 Cup final at the MCG.England’s only hope is derived from the fact that the pitch in Christchurch is extremely favourable to batting.A look at how Healy has gone about building this incredible knockPoll: How big will Australia go?And the question isn’t whether Australia will set a big total for England to chase.The question is how big.Healy now has the highest score by any woman in a World Cup final.She’s just the second woman to score a century in a World Cup final.This is an incredible innings, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down.The 50-run partnership with Mooney is now up, too.The star opener was dropped just shy of reaching the half century mark, but has really put her foot down and played a faultless innings since. We’re working to restore it. Is this the best World Cup innings ever?Healy brings up 500 runs for the tournamentJust a couple of hours ago, Rachael Haynes had 497 runs for the tournament. We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Skip to sections navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer