Women’s Cricket World Cup: South Africa eye semi-final spot
Cricket
Australia became the first team to guarantee their spot in the World Cup semi-finals.
WELLINGTON (Web Desk) - Quality doesn’t get much higher than South Africa v Australia at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, and the world’s top two ranked sides are preparing to duke it out in Wellington in Match 21 of the tournament.
Australia became the first team to guarantee their spot in the World Cup semi-finals thanks to their victory over India last time out, a fifth win from five matches.
And Tuesday’s opponents South Africa can join the Aussies in officially sealing a semi-final spot if they beat the tournament favourites at Basin Reserve.
The Proteas could well already have enough to make it through, with eight points on the board and two further matches to play after the Australia fixture. And the current focus is on trying to pick up a statement win against the six-time World Champions.
“Obviously they re a world-class side, they re number one in the world, so it s not a game that we re going to take lightly at all,” talented batter Laura Wolvaardt said.
“I guess we just need to see it as a normal game though. Just watch the ball one ball at a time. We can t go out there playing the player.
“I don t think we ve ever beaten them in ODIs so I think it s a great opportunity to do that. But yeah, we ll have to be on the top of our game.”
A dramatic tie in 2016 is the closest Australia have ever come to losing an ODI to South Africa in 14 previous meetings, with a last-ball run-out seeing the Proteas miss out on a famous win on that occasion.
That head-to-head record will add further confidence to an already bullish Australian side, who top the group stage standings after a superb tournament so far.
But this will be the first 50-over meeting between the teams in close to five years, and the Aussies are fully aware that they are approaching their biggest test of the 2022 World Cup to-date.
“South Africa have been on a bit of a run and played a lot of consistent cricket across those five years against some world class opponents as well,” Australia’s Beth Mooney said in her pre-match press conference. “Unfortunately, we haven t had too much of an opportunity to come up against them
“They ve shown they ve got a world class bowling attack as well as batters that can win the game for them. But we re pretty, pretty confident with the intel we have both playing with them in WBBL, and playing against some of the girls in that team that have been around for a long period of time.
“I think towards this back end of this competition, you want to gather as much momentum as you can leading into the semis and potentially a final. I m sure we ll put our best team out in the park, even though we have locked in that semi-final game.
“We still want to make a huge statement leading into that semi-final as well. So I m sure you ll see the best of the Australian team across the next two games.”
THE TEAMS
Australia Squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Darcie Brown, Nic Carey, Ash Gardner, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Amanda-Jade Wellington. Travelling reserves: Georgia Redmayne, Heather Graham.
South Africa Squad: Suné Luus (c), Chloé Tryon (vc), Ayabonga Khaka, Lara Goodall, Laura Wolvaardt, Lizelle Lee, Marizanne Kapp, Masabata Maria Klaas, Mignon du Preez, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Shabnim Ismail, Sinalo Jafta, Tazmin Brits, Trisha Chetty, Tumi Sekhukhune. Travelling reserves: Andrie Steyn, Nadine de Klerk, Raisibe Ntozakhe.
