• Proteas Women brace for biggest test

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    The Proteas will be targeting a first-ever ODI win over Australia when the Women’s World Cup’s only unbeaten teams meet in Wellington on Tuesday.

    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 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 over the six-time world champions.

    “Obviously, they’re a world-class side, they’re No 1 in the world, so it’s not a game that we’re going to take lightly at all,” said Proteas batter Laura Wolvaardt.

    “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 having the Proteas miss out on a famous win on that occasion.

    That head-to-head record will add further confidence to an already bullish Australia side, who top the league 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 media 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 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 match will start at midnight (SA time) and be broadcast on the SuperSport Cricket channel.

    – Article from Cricket World Cup website

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    Simon Borchardt