Batting brilliance and bowling fire take South Africa to maiden Cup final
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Guwahati: South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt scored a hundred for the ages before the seasoned Marizanne Kapp made the ball talk in good batting conditions to script a 125-run victory over England and enter their maiden Women’s ODI Cup final here on Wednesday.
Wolvaardt single-handedly pushed South Africa to a formidable 319 for seven with an epic 169 off 143 balls, negating the impact of two mini collapses caused by left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone.
Four-time champions England needed to pull off a record chase to reach another summit clash but Kapp, after doing her bit with the bat, broke the opposition’s back with a five-wicket haul, limiting them to 194 in 42.3 overs.
“Still feels a bit unreal. You dream as a kid of scoring a hundred in a World Cup knock-out game,” Wolvaardt said at the post-match presentation ceremony after receiving the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
“This probably has to be right at the top considering the context, a World Cup semi-final. It is right up there,” she added.
The Proteas women had played back-to-back T20 World Cup finals but lost on both occasions.
On a surface with plenty of runs, Kapp got the ball to seam both ways. England were up against it from the first over of the chase when Kapp got rid of Amy Jones and the experienced former skipper Heather Knight.
Jones was beaten by a ball that seamed back in while Knight played a wide ball on to her stumps, leaving Kapp all fired up.
England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt (64 off 76) and Alice Capsey (50 off 71) tried to resurrect the innings with a 107-run stand. When the latter was caught at mid-on by Sune Luus, it seemed all but over for them.
It was Kapp who delivered the knockout punch by having the dangerous Sciver-Brunt caught behind. At 151 for eight, the game was only heading South Africa’s way.
The second semi-final will be played between India and Australia in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.
Put in to bat, South Africa set the platform for a 300-plus total with a 116-run stand between Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits (45 off 65). However, Ecclestone (4/44) struck twice in the 23rd over to put the brakes on South Africa’s scoring rate.
A 72-run stand between Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp (42 off 33) followed before Ecclestone broke a threatening partnership once again. At 202 for six, South Africa seemed to be heading for a below-par total but Wolvaardt took her sublime game to the next level to fire her team past the 300-run mark.
The first half of her innings was about her regal drives through the off-side before she targeted the mid-wicket boundary against the England pacers and spinners to ensure South Africa regained the momentum. Her innings comprised 17 fours and three sixes.
Wolvaardt, whose highest ODI score is 184, took left-arm spinner Linsey Smith to the cleaners in the 47th over, which yielded 20 runs.
Batting with a wide stance, Wolvaardt was quick to dispatch balls on the leg side. She brought up her 150 with a six over mid-wicket and also completed 5000 ODI runs during the course of her marathon knock.
Chloe Tryon (33 not out off 26) and Nadine de Klerk (11 not out off 6) did the needful towards the end of the innings. The last 10 overs yielded 117 runs for the Proteas women.
Their batting performance was a far cry from their 69 all out against the same opponent in the league stage of the tournament.
