Women's World Cup: Australia dismantle West Indies in semi-final

Australia demolished West Indies in Wellington to reach the final of the Women's World Cup.

The tournament favourites made light of the green pitch and damp weather to rack up a huge score.

The opening partner of Alyssa and Rachael Haynes made 85.

West Indies were hit by Beth Mooney's catch to dismiss Rashada Williams, which would have been the highest successful chase in a women's one-day international.

The Windies crawled their way to 148 all out, despite the fact that two of their top hitters were injured.

Australia will play either England or South Africa in the final.

The second semi-final will be held at the Hagley Oval on Thursday.

No mistake this time

Five years ago, Australia was dumped out by India, but have dominated ever since.

The West Indies won the toss and asked Australia to bat, which had the ingredients of another upset.

Australia produced a devastating performance that will act as a warning to whichever team they are to meet in the final.

West Indies dropped four catches and wasted the new ball in a poor performance. Anisa Mohammed was injured while chasing a ball to the boundary and only took two overs.

The contest was effectively over when Australia made the highest total in a knockout match at the Women's World Cup.

They made light of the fact that Ellyse was missing out with a back injury. Australia don't need her when they play like this.

Individual brilliance propels Australia

The fifth-highest partnership at the Women's World Cup was the Healy-Haynes one.

While Haynes accumulated through the covers and off her hips, the assault was spectacular, with sweeps, reverse-sweeps and balletic footwork. She hit 62 runs from her last 33 balls.

Haynes was put down on 58 and 61 by the off-spinner of Ramharack, who also had a tough caught and bowled chance to Chinelle Henry on five. The second catch was straightforward.

The damage was done by the time the West Indies held on to their catches. The stand of 69 between Mooney and Lanning pushed Australia past 300.

The second half was boring except for the effort of Mooney, who produced the best catch of the tournament.

When the ball almost went past her, Mooney held on to Megan Schutt with one hand and flung herself to her right to grab Williams.

The West Indies approach was curious and their refusal to entertain the chase killed the spectacle.

Australia recorded the biggest margin of victory in terms of runs in this year's competition and all World Cup knockout matches, when Mohammed and Henry were unable to bat.

'The job isn't done yet'

Meg Lanning, captain of Australia, has been involved in some very stressed semi-finals in the past. We were expecting a very tough game.

Today, our openers set it up for us. We had a good plan to take on the pressure of the West Indies and build a platform from it.

The first hour was important because we know how the pitch plays. They waited for the bad ball and then set us up nicely.

Today was close to the perfect game and we can certainly be happy to play that way in a big game. We will enjoy the win, you have to do that from a semi-final, but we came here to win so the job is not done yet.

West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor said that a partnership like that can deflate the whole team. Australia absorbed all our pressure and we couldn't get over it.