England secured a place in the semi-finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup with a comfortable seven-wicket victory over South Africa.
Having won Monday’s Group B clash between the previously unbeaten pair, they take charge of this section confident that a decent win over Scotland on Sunday will all but secure them a place in the last four. It happened.
Australia would have been watching England’s successful spinners and solid top-order batsmen with interest. A win against New Zealand at the same Sharjah venue on Tuesday (Wednesday 1am AEDT) would take control of Group A and increase the chances of the Ashes rivals avoiding each other in the semi-finals.
England, who clinched victory in the set 125, were always looked like favorites and eventually snatched victory with four balls to spare. The chase was based on a 64-run, 55-ball third-wicket partnership between Danny Wyatt Hodge (43 runs a ball) and Nat Sciver. – Brandt (48 not out of 36).
The victory partially avenged back-to-back losses at this stage against the Proteas, including last year’s semi-final.
South Africa, who chose to bat first, achieved good results, but found themselves in a quagmire midway through the innings. After the first six overs of power play, he scored 1-37 and scored 39 in the last five overs, his best death batting in the tournament so far. However, he scored 48 in the middle nine overs.
Captain Laura Wolvaardt hit 42 off 39 balls, while Marisanne Kapp (26 off 17 balls) and Annelie Derksen (20 off 11 balls) provided momentum in the second half.
England’s Sophie Ecclestone is congratulated by Dani Gibson on taking a Marizanne Cup wicket. (AP photo)
But both Kapp and Wolvaardt were dismissed by Sarah Ecclestone, who lived up to expectations as the No. 1 bowler in the women’s game.
“There were two big wickets so I was happy to get through them,” Ecclestone said. Ecclestone, who took 2-15 from four overs, was well supported by fellow spinners Sarah Glen (1-18) and Charlie Dean (1-25).
England captain Heather Knight said: “I’m really pleased. We knew it was going to be a tricky chase but we controlled it really well. The partnership was great to watch.”
England had 1 win and 28 losses after a power play that struggled to pull away from the cup, and by midway through they were 2 wins and 55 losses, still needing 70 points. But they cruised to an easy victory with five overs remaining after Wyatt-Hodge and Siver-Brunt brought the game to a run-a-ball rate.
Knight is pleased with England’s energy in field catching, but challenges remain with four missed sharp chances and one run-out.
Fallen catches were a theme of the tournament, and some have suggested that the placement of the floodlights was to blame (although day games also featured dropped catches).
Apart from being without Wolvaardt for 22 games, England’s Butterfingers weren’t all that expensive. It’s not a South African thing. Alice Capsey left the game without a point, but scored 19 points. Then Wyatt Hodge missed out on 31 and 37 points, at a time when South Africa were desperate for a breakthrough.
“We’re obviously very disappointed,” Walbert said. “We were talking about scoring 140 points and saying that if we hit another 10 to 20 points, it might be fun, but at one point we lost track and couldn’t take advantage of our chances.”
