🏏AustraliaW vs South Africa Women, ICC World Cup Final: Page-11 - Page 6

AUS WMN won by 5 runs

This is a heartbreak for India. If you looked at the first half, they don't deserve to win today, but if you had a glance at the chase, their fighting spirit and comeback with the bat despite three early wickets was nothing short of inspirational. The final at the G in 2020 was a surrender, but they can keep the heads high for the fight they put on. Australia thought this was slipping away at one stage, but Harmanpreet's bat getting stuck before the crease opened the door for them. Australia rode on the slice of luck that India didn't have in their fielding effort. India were shoddy with their field placing, fielding and bowling as Australia made an above-par total. India looked down with three quick wickets, but Jemi smacked the first two balls she faced for four and captain Harmanpreet's first ball back foot punch for gave the hint that these girls weren't giving up. Some fearless cricket from both and suddenly India bossed the powerplay.

Ash Gardner | Player of the Match: Bowling the last over, my average heart-rate is probably like 190. That just shows the way we fight as a team, and that's what we kind of spoke about in the huddle right at the end. We probably weren't in a winning position and that's when this team does best. When our backs are up against the wall, we find a way and we scrap really hard and that's what we did today with the ball. I think we set up the game really well with the bat, probably missed a few with the ball but I think that fight we showed shows the character of this team. (Meg was telling me to) just be really clear with what I want to execute, we obviously know that they have handy batters all the way down, so it's about being clear on what you want to do and not give any freebies. I was just trying to hit the wicket and keep the stumps in play as often as possible. Always nice spending time in the middle, spending time with Meg as well. She is always calm and keeps it simple out there. I felt with the confidence coming into this game after the couple of innings I have had throughout this World Cup, I guess I gotta take that confidence into the next game and then hopefully win in the final.

Harmanpreet: Can't be unluckier than this, to get that momentum back when me and Jemi were batting. And to lose after that, we didn't expect this today. The way I got runout, can't be unluckier than that. Putting in the effort was more important. We discussed about fighting till the last ball. The result didn't go our way, but I am happy with the way we played in this tournament. We know we have a good batting line up even if we lose early wickets. Need to give credit to Jemi for the way she batted today. She got us the momentum we were looking for. Happy to see such performances. Happy to see them play their natural game. We even though we didn't play to our strengths, we reached the semis. We gave those easy catches away. Got to take those when you want to win. We misfielded. We can only learn from these lessons and not repeat the mistakes.

Congratulations to Australia for winning the match. 🥳

The only consolation is, India lost by just 5 runs.

Cheers..

Congratulations to the indomitable Australian team for their win and the consequent chance for competing in the final to win the cup. ⭐️

As Raji rightly mentioned, our team's defeat with a narrow margin is the only consolation for us.

A few points the team has to ponder after this exit from the World cup, but we must say, they fought well and accumulated a few victories with thumping margin.⭐️

Originally posted by: SoniRita

AUS WMN won by 5 runs

Indian woman have failed badly 🤢 Can’t achieve WC at all.. only Indian Men have been able to achieve it.. be it 50 over WC and T20 WC

South Africa:

Possible XI: Laura Wolvaardt, Tazmin Brits, Marizanne Kapp, Sune Luus (capt), Chloe Tryon, Anneke Bosch, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta, Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba

England: Lauren Bell, who was rested for Tuesday's match and replaced by Freya Davies, looks likely to return in a straight swap

Possible XI: Danni Wyatt, Sophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight (capt), Amy Jones, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn, Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell

England have reached six women's World T20 or T20 World Cup semifinals, won four of them and had one washed out. South Africa have been there twice, and lost twice.

There is little reason to believe that trend won't continue when the teams meet in their semifinal at Newlands on Friday. No doubt England expected to be here. The South Africans wouldn't be human if they weren't surprised to have made it this far.

Unbeaten England steamrolled their way into the knockout rounds by beating West Indies, Ireland, India and Pakistan. South Africa crashed to a shock defeat by Sri Lanka in the tournament opener, were fortunate to catch New Zealand on an off day and beat them, lost to Australia, and laboured to victory over Bangladesh. Wednesday's double-header, also at Newlands, offered a stark illustration of the teams' different worlds.

England hammered Pakistan's bowling to all parts to total 213/5, the record score in the history of the tournament. They won by 114 runs, another record. A more complete, emphatic performance would be difficult to find.

- South Africa have met England in three white-ball World Cup semifinals, and lost all of them.

- England are the only other team besides Australia to win this tournament.

What they said:

"Oh, that's great then. There's no pressure on us then. We can just go out and enjoy and play freely, enjoy the moment and try and do our best." - Sune Luus on what she would say to people who think South Africa have no chance of winning.

"The pressure is all on South Africa. It's a home World Cup for them." - Danni Wyatt doesn't agree with Luus.