Australia face resurgent South African women’s team in T20 World Cup cricket final
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World dominance is fueling Australia’s quest for a sixth world T20 title as they prepare to take on first-time finalists South Africa in the decider in Cape Town on Sunday.
That’s the opinion of Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, player of the match following their five-run win over India in Thursday’s semi-final.
“Obviously coming to a World Cup, you want to be a World Cup champion,” Gardner said after her match-winning 18-ball 31 and 2-37.
‘So, we want to be world champions. We want to win everything. I think every team wants to do that, but we certainly don’t want to leave here without a medal.
‘I hate to lose. I think everyone hates losing. So, I feel like that’s probably one of the things that people always think about.
“But it’s just power, I guess, as a team we always say we want to keep evolving.” And ultimately, if we’re evolving as athletes and as individuals, we’re going to get better.”
Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner delivers a ball during the semi-final T20 Women’s World Cup cricket match between Australia and India
Australia’s Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning and Ashleigh Gardner celebrate reaching the World Cup final
South Africa’s fast bowler Shabnim Ismail said the hosts will be looking to use their familiarity with the Australians in the WBBL to pull off an upset.
“We know exactly what we can expect against the Australian team, which is a world-class team,” Ismail said Friday after South Africa, which has not lost a game since losing to Sri Lanka in its opening game of the tournament, beat to England for six. runs in the second semi-final at Newlands.
The 34-year-old, who is a regular in the Australian domestic T20 competition along with many of her South African teammates, added: “They have a batting line-up from one to basically eight and nine, and we talked. about obviously getting in the queue.
Shabnim Ismail of South Africa celebrates taking the wicket of Sophia Dunkley during their win over England
Australia have never lost to South Africa at any World Cup in eight matches in the ODI format and six in the T20I equivalent.
In the group stage of the ongoing eighth edition of the 20-plus masterpiece, Tahlia McGrath’s 33-ball 57 beat Tazmin Brits’ 36-ball 45 to set up Australia’s six-wicket victory at Gqeberha.
Ismail believes increasing the pressure against a ‘quiet’ Australia will be key to South Africa’s chances of clinching the country’s first ever men’s and women’s World Cup.
“To be honest, I don’t really think Australia have been under immense pressure during this whole World Cup and other World Cups as well,” Ismail said.
So just for us to go out there and pressure the first five or six hitters. And we know that in the rear we can defend anything.
“We know we have a strong bowling unit and for the batsmen to go out there and play cricket bravely, that’s what’s going to push us over the edge.”
Ellyse Perry celebrates with Tahlia McGrath after taking a catch to dismiss India’s Radha Yadav
The same surface on which 80 overs were bowled in the two semi-finals will be used for the final.
The two knockouts produced 661 runs for the loss of 24 wickets, 14 of which were to pacers and eight to spinners.
In both games, the chasing teams India and England lost the toss and ended up losing.
The pitch was considered “good” by most of the players in the four semi-finalists and described as “flat” by speedy South African Marizanne Kapp.
Gardner said they expected to score 170-180.
“I think that’s definitely defensible, especially in a World Cup final.
“Obviously it’s a lot of pressure, but yeah… if you play well enough, you can certainly defend that.”
No rain is forecast for Sunday, but in the unlikely event of a washout, the reserve day will come into play.