'We'll definitely review that' - Healy and Australia ride the upswing after fielding low

The edges were flying off Bangladesh left-handed opener Rubya Haider's bat against the new ball, off both Megan Schutt's swing as well as Darcie Brown's pace. One landed short of first slip, one flew wide, another just managed to get out of a diving Phoebe Litchfield's hands in the slips, and one leading edge fell safe not far from the pitch.

At the start of the tenth over, Brown drew another edge off Haider's bat and this time the ball was headed straight into Alyssa Healy's mitts. Healy barely had to take a step to her left for the catch around waist height, her gloves right behind the ball, but when she clasped her hands around it, the ball just popped out. Healy wore a rueful look while stealing a glance at her team-mates. She couldn't fathom the fact that she had put down a sitter.

Healy would have hardly blamed herself as much when she sprinted towards the stumps to try and get her gloves under a Shorna Akter leading edge in the 28th over but this one was the toughest of the lot. The list, however, kept getting longer for Australia. Three overs later, the safe hands of Beth Mooney couldn't hold on to one at first slip, and by the time the Bangladesh innings ended, Australia had put down six chances in all, but most of them not-so-straightforward with four of them requiring diving efforts.

Healy was the first to admit at the presentation after Australia's ten-wicket thrashing of Bangladesh that she "was a little bit poor behind the stumps" and their overall fielding effort is something they will "reflect on" as they head to Indore for their last two league matches.

Player of the Match Alana King, who finished with a frugal spell of 10-4-18-2, said: "I think they were all probably tough catches. I don't think there was an easy catch. And no doubt we'll definitely review that. We pride ourselves on our fielding and something that we want to be putting on display. So I think just with those high balls and us probably being a bit aggressive in the field, we wanted to get the players to hit over us. So to have an attacking option and players diving for the ball, we love to see that. I think that creates great energy amongst the group and a positive mindset as well. So no doubt we'd love every catch to stick, but unfortunately the nature of cricket, that doesn't happen too often."

The nature of the game is, like King said, that sometimes, despite your best attempts, the laurels of the past and all the trophies in the cabinets, some off days slip through without a big reason.

Healy might have felt like that for her drop, though she was seen doing her intensive keeping drills every time Australia turned out for a nets session. Yet, the ball had been evading her in strange ways; when King was turning the ball viciously from outside leg to around off, one just went straight past the batter's pads down leg and left Healy watching with a sheepish grin. Against India too, one went right through her when Healy had more time to collect the ball off pace bowler Annabel Sutherland and the ball instead went on to rattle the helmet behind her for five penalty runs.

Just like her keeping sessions, Healy had been sweating it out in the batting nets too, calling it a "frustrating experience" earlier because she had "no rhythm whatsoever." Healy had hardly been scoring the kind of runs she is used to since the last ODI World Cup, which Australia won under Meg Lanning in 2022, with back-to-back hundreds in the knockouts against West Indies and England.

Australia didn't play any more ODIs in 2022 after that, and when they returned to action in early 2023, Healy had picked up a calf injury. When she turned out in the 2023 Ashes, she lasted all of 28 deliveries in three ODIs for scores of 8, 13 and 7. It took her another six innings to score a half-century. Though she started 2024 on a slightly better note, a foot injury at the T20 World Cup, a knee issue, and a recurrence of the foot injury kept her out of action for much of 2025.

After intense rehabilitation, she made it in time for the current World Cup but after scores of 30, 9 and 27 in the three bilateral ODIs against India in the lead-up. The big scores were still proving elusive when she fell for 19 and 20 in the opening two games, against New Zealand and Pakistan.

But like she did in the 2022 edition, she brought out her best when it mattered, in a high-profile clash opposite India in front of a sold-out crowd in Visakhapatnam while chasing a record 331. She appeared a bit watchful for the first four overs, but took off with her trademark short-arm jab for four and soon dispatched Kranti Gaud, who had dismissed Healy three times in 35 balls in the bilaterals, for 6, 4, 4 and 4 for a 19-run over. Healy went on to knock the stuffing out of the Indian attack for her seventh ODI century that finally made her feel "it was my day today" after over three years.

She had to wait three years for that century but the next one took just three days, this time while chasing a modest 199 against Bangladesh. That she was now at ease and back in her rhythm was evident in how she let out a beaming smile under the helmet after her 43-ball half-century. She made room with ease, shuffled across the crease for sweeps, raced from 50 to 100 in just 30 balls and brought back the fear she had instilled into oppositions, to lead the run charts of this World Cup, like it was 2022.

"[It's] just incredible to see what she's done," King said of her captain after the game. "First of all, to do it against India, it was massive and she was pretty bloody determined to do so. But then to not let the foot off the throat and do it again tonight, just shows where her mindset's at. And she's pinned the ball beautifully and to have Phoebes down the other end in tandem, hitting the ball as clean as I've seen her, and to chase down a pretty big total, none down, I think that's something that's going to ooze confidence in our whole line-up."

Who knows how much Bangladesh would have scored had Healy taken that catch early on, who knows what would have happened if Fargana Hoque had held on to one at short fine leg when she misjudged one completely with Healy on 67? For now, even though Australia are not at their best, they want to continue by not letting the "foot off the throat" and hope that the hands hold on to the catches.