Australia have stormed into the ICC Women’s World Cup final with a champions-elect performance against the West Indies in the first semifinal at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
The Aussies posted a mammoth 305/3, courtesy of a scintillating century from Alyssa Healy, which proved far too much for the Windes, who succumbed for a paltry 148/8.
The victory margin of 157 runs perfectly illustrated the gulf in class between the two teams.
West Indies' miniscule chance of chasing down the massive score was always going to be dependent on their two premier batters Deandre Dottin and Hayley Matthews.
Both flattered to deceive with identical scores of 34, while captain Stafanie Taylor was the last batter out for 48.
However, that was far from what was required on the day as at least one of them needed to match Healy's brilliant 129 off 107 balls (17x4, 1x6).
Equally, they did not come close to Healy's opening partner Rachael Haynes' classy 85, with the Australian opening pair setting up the game with a record-breaking 216-run partnership for the first wicket.
The start of the match was delayed due to persistent drizzle and subsequently reduced to 45 overs per team, but that did nothing to stem Australia's desire to progress to the seventh World Cup final.
Haynes was the initial aggressor with Healy struggling with her timing early on. In fact, Healy did not strike a single boundary in the first Powerplay, which was also reduced to nine overs.
WOLFAARDT TOP
However, the Australian wicketkeeper, who had earlier in the day been deposed as the World's No 1 ODI batter by South Africa's superstar Laura Wolvaardt due to a relatively quiet World Cup, rediscovered her touch during the next 10 overs.
Healy was helped by a couple of full tosses from Windies offspinner Anisa Mohammed, who later left the field after collapsing on the field clutching her hamstring during a chase to the boundary, which enabled her to kickstart her innings.
And once her timing improved there was simply no stopping Healy as she unleashed her full repertoire of orthodox sweep shots, reverse sweeps, lofted drives and powerful pull shots.
After going toe-to-toe towards their half-centuries with almost an identical amount of balls and boundaries struck, Healy put her foot down on the accelerator and quickly outstripped her partner Haynes as she swiftly moved along to her fourth ODI century off just 91 balls (13x4, 1x6).
Healy's positive intent allowed Australia to bring up their 200 in just 31.2 overs.
The Australian batting masterclass took the wind out of the Windies' sails with their efforts in the field resembling a ramshackle mess.
FIELDING ISSUES
Overall the West Indies dropped four simple catches during Australia's innings with Haynes, in particular, dropped on 59 and 61 by Shamilia Connell and Hayley Matthews respectively. The unlucky bowler on both occasions was offspinner Karishma Ramharack.
The Windies eventually held on to a chance when substitute fielder SC Selman ran in to take a good diving catch off Connell's bowling to dismiss Healy for a masterful 129 off 107 balls (17x4, 1x6).
Haynes' good fortune ran out shortly after her opening partner's demise when she struck a tame drive to Deandra Dottin at short cover.
Australia promoted the big-hitting Ashleigh Gardner up the order and although the experiment did not work on this occasion with the allrounder falling for just 12 off eight balls, it showed the positive intent of this juggernaut Aussie team.
Gardner's failure did nothing to halt the momentum though, with captain Meg Lanning (26*) and Beth Mooney (43*) compounding the Windies' misery by maintaining the momentum with an unbroken 69-run partnership off just 55 balls for the fourth wicket that took Australia over the magical 300-run mark that proved way too much for an out-classed Windies team.
AUSTRALIA: Alyssa Healy (wk), Rachael Haynes, Meg Lanning (capt), Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown
WEST INDIES: Deandra Dottin, Rashada Williams, Hayley Matthews, Stafanie Taylor (capt), Shemaine Campbelle (wk), Chedean Nation, Kycia Knight, Chinelle Henry, Anisa Mohammed, Karishma Ramharack, Shamilia Connell