Skipper Alyssa Healy smashed her way to a second consecutive ton as Australia cantered home by 10 wickets to become the first team to make it to the semifinals of the ICC Women's ODI World Cup, in Visakhapatnam, on Thursday.
Asked to bowl, a disciplined Australia first restricted Bangladesh to a modest 198 for 9, and then rode on Healy (113 not out off 77 balls) and Phoebe Litchfield's (84 off 72 balls) aggressive knocks to chase down the target with consummate ease in 24.5 overs.
It turned out to be a cakewalk for Australia as the seven-time champions showed their class while overhauling the paltry total with Healy and Litchfield coming out all guns blazing against the hapless Bangladesh attack.
Healy, who scored a stunning 142 in a record chase of 331 against India, played her shots to all parts of the ground from the word go while Litchfield tried to match her stroke for stroke with her attacking intent as Bangladesh bowlers had no answers to their brutal assault.
A rejuvenated Healy decorated her unbeaten innings with as many as 20 boundaries, while Litchfield struck 12 fours and one maximum.
Litchfield drew curtains to the chase in style, hitting Fariha Trisna for two consecutive boundaries to complete the formalities inside 25 overs.
Bangladesh's spin attack, considered as their main weapon, had no answers to Healy and Litchfield's aggressive batting.
Earlier, Bangladesh made a cautious start after opting to bat against the mighty opponents, with Rubya Haider and Shobana Mostary doing the bulk of the scoring.
If not for Mostary's (66 not out off 80 balls, 9x4s) valiant unbeaten fifty and Haider's start at the top, Bangladesh would have never really got closer to the 200-run mark.
In fact Mostary's 66 was the highest individual score by a Bangladeshi batter against Australia in women's cricket.
But Bangladesh batting unit never really looked at ease with most of the batters struggling to rotate the strike.
Despite Haider and Mostary's knocks, Bangladesh innings never had the momentum needed as it failed to put up a decent score against the defending champions.
Haider and Fargana Hoque shared 32 runs in nine overs for the opening stand before the latter departed when Megan Scutt induced an edge and Beth Mooney took an excellent catch at the slip.
Haider, on the other hand, was in an aggressive mood as she played her shots, picking up eight boundaries during her 59-ball 44-run knock.
Haider beautifully drove a lofty half volley from Annabel Sutherland through the covers and then followed it up with a top-edge pull to the boundary in the next ball.
Haider was particularly elegant in her drives as she smashed Ashleigh Gardner through the mid-off region in the 18th over before perishing two balls later.
Haider's innings came to an end when she tried to slog sweep Gardner over mid-on but didn't get the desired elevation, holing out to Tahlia McGrath at mid-on.
Gardner struck again in the 22nd over, removing Sharmin Akter (19), who gave simple catch to Sutherland at mid-on.
Skipper Nigar Sultana (12) struggled to 12 off 35 balls but was completely deceived by leg-spinner Alana King and Healy completed an easy stumping.
While Mostary held one end up, Bangladesh kept losing wickets from the other with the likes of Shorna Akter, Ritu Moni, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan all departing in quick succession.
For Australia, King (2-18), Sutherland (2-41), Gardner (2-49) and Georgia Wareham (2-22) shared eight wickets among them.
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