Openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney rattled up half-centuries as Australia thumped Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in their Women’s T20 World Cup clash at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Thursday.
Chasing a paltry 113 for victory, Healy (54 off 43) and Mooney (56 off 53) helped underline their team’s title credentials as they comfortably chased down the target inside 16 overs.
Earlier, the Aussies put in another clinical performance with the ball, restricting the Sri Lankans to 112/8 with only two batters scoring more than 20 runs.
Aussie seamer Megan Schutt took four wickets, conceding just 24 runs in her four-over ration.
The win sees the women in yellow remain at the summit of Group A with six points after three games played with an impressive net run rate of 2,413.
They are now almost guaranteed to finish in the top two positions in the group.
Healy and Mooney batted patiently to take their side past 50 in the eighth over, as the Sri Lankan bowlers failed to make a breakthrough.
In an innings that saw just 13 boundaries and a six off the bats of the Australians, the pair looked unfazed bringing up the 100 partnership by comfortably rotating the strike.
The duo spent over an hour at the crease, eventually grabbing the final single to finish the match with 25 balls to spare.
Sri Lanka lost both openers with 69 runs on the board as skipper Chamari Athapaththu (16) and Harshitha Samarawickrama (34) fell to Ellyse Perry and Grace Harris respectively.
Two more wickets fell when Oshadi Ranasinghe (0) was Harris’s second victim, while Georgia Wareham also got in on the act, dismissing Anushka Sanjeewani (8) to leave the Islanders on 86/4 halfway through the 17th over.
The Sri Lankans lost four more wickets for the addition of just 26 runs as Schutt ripped through their middle order.
First, she removed Vishmi Gunaratne (24), caught by Perry in the 18th over, before taking three wickets in five balls as she accounted for Kanchana (4), Malsha Shehani (0) and Sugandika Kumari (4) to end the innings.
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