Australia have all but cemented their place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals yet their nine-wicket cakewalk triumph over Pakistan may have come at a huge cost with potential tournament-ending injuries to captain Alyssa Healy and luckless pace ace Tayla Vlaeminck.
Skipper Healy limped out with what “an acute right foot injury” caused when taking a swift second run while guiding her side on what had looked a trouble-free chase after they’d skittled Pakistan for just 82 in Dubai on Friday.
“Once we have more information based on her assessment and scans tomorrow, her availability for the rest of the tournament will be clearer,” a team official reported.
Vice-captain Tahlia McGrath said she was “heartbroken for those two girls at the moment.”
And asked about taking over the captaincy for the final group A game against India on Sunday, McGrath added: “The thing about this Australian side is how much depth we’ve got. Captaincy, wicketkeeping-batting, we’ve got so much depth … yep, time to use it.”
After Healy retired hurt on 37, Ellyse Perry (22no) guided the champions to victory in just 11 overs as they moved unbeaten on to six points.
Yet while their captain’s fitness is obviously key, there was just as much sadness in the camp for injury-plagued Vlaeminck, who dislocated her right shoulder while fielding in the very first over of the match.
Vlaeminck, perhaps the fastest bowler in the world, had been given a chance to showcase it in her first match of the tournament but never got the opportunity, with her accident coming after just four balls.
Chasing down the ball to the third-man boundary with full commitment, the 25-year-old jagged her left knee into the turf while trying to prevent the four and tumbled over onto her right shoulder.
It was the latest setback to bedevil Vlaeminck after years of problems and surgeries on her foot, knee and left shoulder.
After having to helped from the field, she did have her shoulder later relocated by medics, who are still examining the extent of the injury.
Healy gathered the team around her on the boundary edge after the injury to rally them.
“It was really important,” said McGrath. “We love Tay, and it was pretty hard to watch to be honest for all of us.
“So we just came together as a group to focus on the job at hand, and we’ll get around her after the game. It was really important in that moment just to refocus and regroup.”
Australia did just that, with their abundant bowling riches still ensuring they skittled Pakistan for the lowest score of the tournament.
It was another landmark day for Megan Schutt (1-7 off 3 overs), who’d already become the T20 World Cup’s top wicket-taker in the previous match, as she now became the all-time leading wicket-taker in all T20 internationals.
The 31-year-old had Sadaf Shamas caught behind sharply by Healy for her 144th scalp, taking Schutt past Pakistan’s own Nidar Dar, who went wicketless.
Ash Gardner was player of the match for her 4-21, featuring three wickets in the penultimate over, while there were two wickets apiece for Annabel Sutherland (2-15 off 2.5 overs) and Georgia Wareham (2-16 off 4) as the Australian attack proved suffocatingly accurate.
In reply, Healy, who’d made two smart stumpings to go with her catch, went past 1000 World T20 runs in blistering fashion, hammering five boundaries – one more than Pakistan managed between them – in 23 balls before her cruel mishap.
Beth Mooney’s was the only wicket to fall after a run-a-ball 15 and Perry guided them home to a 14th successive T20 World Cup victory against a Pakistan side already dispirited by the absence of skipper Fatima Sana, who’d flown home after the death of her father.
Mathematically, there’s still the slimmest possibility Australia could miss a semi-final spot, but India would have to beat them by a huge margin and New Zealand win their two matches emphatically for that to happen.
