The second semi-final match of the Women’s T20 World Cup was played between England and South Africa at the Newland ground in Cape Town. South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first. The home team got off to a tremendous start and scored 164/4 in their 20 overs. England, in their chase, could only score 158 runs and lost the match by 6 runs. This result means that the final will now be played between Australia and South Africa.
In the first innings, after winning the toss, the South African team got off to a flying start and both the openers, Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits played brilliantly. Laura scored 53 runs, while Tazmin scored 68. Marijan Kapp’s quick-fire 27 runs off just 13 balls in the last over brought the team’s total to 164 runs. The Proteas restricted England to 158/8, thanks to Ayabonga Khaka’s 4/29 and Shabnim Ismail’s 3/27.
Player of the Match: Tazmin Brits
In the first 6 overs of the South African innings, Heather Knight has so far used five different bowlers. Often you will not see so many bowlers used inside the powerplay. Till the 7th over, South African batters struggled in front of the English bowlers. Although there have been few boundaries, the Englishwoman has kept it tight. Maybe that’s the strategy from Knight to not let the opposition settle in.
From the above chart, we can observe that Sarah Glenn was the most expensive bowler against Tazmin yesterday. She clears the ropes for a six to bring up South Africa’s 100. She dances down the ground to hit Sarah Glenn for a massive six. She goes the big way two balls later before hitting a four in the next to bring her fifty. From just over six runs per over, the run rate has risen up to close to eight per over at 18 overs. Wonderful batting from Tazmin Brits and South Africa.
Ayabonga Khaka’s Bowling Pitch Map
Chasing the target of 165 runs, England started well and scored 53 runs in the first five overs. However, the team lost wickets continuously and could not recover from there. Ayabonga Khaka from the South African team took four wickets and turned the match in favour of the home team. The South African team’s decision to bat first after winning the toss proved to be the right decision. Their openers played exceptionally well, and the team was able to set a challenging target for England.
On the other hand, England started well, but their inability to keep wickets in hand cost them the match. As we can conclude from the pitch map, Khaka bowled 50% of the deliveries at full length and the remaining 50% of deliveries were bowled at good and back-of-length regions. In all, she secured four wickets, two of which were taken off full-length deliveries around the fifth and sixth stumps and two from good-length deliveries around the middle-leg stump.
Conclusion
Now, the South African side will collide with the reigning champions Australia in the championship finale. They showed commendable fighting spirit to upset England in the semifinal but it will need to stitch together a perfect game to topple the mighty Australia, who is the record five-time champions and are in their seventh successive final. It won’t be straightforward for either side to win this contest. Can Australia lift the trophy for the sixth time or will the South African unit take home the trophy for the first time?
