South Africa Women vs Australia Women Prediction: Can South Africa give an ample response to unstoppable Aussies?

The ICC Women’s World Cup was off with a bang when Sri Lankans defeated the South Africans in the first game, which is one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. Since then, the favorites have prevailed and the upsets have disappeared. Talking about the host South Africa, they are going to take on Australia. 

South Africa recovered from their opening night gaffe and registered a huge 65 runs win against New Zealand. After batting first, they racked up 132 runs. They had a poor start again, losing Brits and Kapp by a score of 13. Laura Woolvardt continued to struggle with her timing and fell after making just 13 runs in 17 balls. Sune Luus played a decent hand, scoring 22 off 17. However, it was Chloe Tryon who rescued the innings and piled up 40 runs in 34 balls whereas Nadine de Clarke’s 28 runs in 26 balls were huge too. Chloe and Nadine finished well and South Africa had an average total on the board.

The total would prove to be more than average when the bowlers worked their magic. They took a wicket in each of the first three overs and then another in the fifth over to reduce New Zealand to four wickets for 18 runs. From there on, the Kiwis were stifled further and each South African bowler controlled the game. After stifling New Zealand early on, the South Africans bowled out New Zealand with around 11 balls remaining. Nonkuleko Mlaba led the way with three wickets, Kapp and Tryon picked two each whereas Ismail and Khaka took one wicket each.

Unsurprisingly, Australians were on peak again and defeated Bangladesh by eight wickets and 10 balls remaining. It was another bowling masterclass from the Aussies and they saw both Bangladesh’s openers off when the score was 11. Only Nigar Sultana could sustain something and Sobhana Mostary and Shorna Akter struggled to time the ball in the middle order. Sultana made 57 runs in 50 balls. Except for that, Shorna was the next-best scorer with just 12 runs as the rest of the batters couldn’t even hit double-figures. A total of 108 was never going to be enough against Australia. Georgia Wareham struck thrice, Darcie Brown had two whereas Gardner and Schutt had one each

Batting-wise, the Australians would have been expected to finish quickly but they were cautious as Marufa Akter was right on the needle. After Beth Monney was sent back early by Marufa, the Australians approached the chase carefully. Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning put up 60 runs but both batted around the strike rate of just 100 as Bangladeshi spinners also hit a rhythm. Once Healy fell, Lanning and Gardner traversed with control in a chase that was completed late but still, Australians never looked like they’d lose.

• Expected Leading Run-Scorers: Meg Lanning(31+ Runs), Laura Woolvardt(26+ Runs);
• Expected Leading Wicket-Takers: Megan Schutt(2+ Wickets), Darcie Brown(1+ wicket), Shabnim Ismail(1+ Wicket), Marizzane Kapp(1+ Wicket).

How badly did the South Africans need Dane Van Niekerk and Mignon du Preez against the Australians, a team that has the tendency to pick early wickets and put pressure on the middle order? The Australians have no issues with depth, in fact, sometimes it feels like that the opposition is playing 11 vs 22 affair. Anything can happen on the big stage and South Africans may find some rhythm but it is just almost impossible to bet against the Australians at this point.