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Australia star batter Tahlia McGrath’s fifty powered Australia to a convincing six-wicket win over South Africa and helped her side become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 in a low chase in St George’s Park, Gqeberh on Saturday.
With this win, Australia won their fourth consecutive match in the tournament and registered their sixth win against South Africa in as many matches at T20 World Cups. On the other hand, South Africa have now lost their second game in three matches and are in third place in Group 1 behind Sri Lanka.
For South Africa to qualify for the semi-finals, they will have to win their next game against Bangladesh and hope Sri Lanka loses to New Zealand on Sunday.
After being asked to bat first, South Africa got off to a quick start with openers Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt adding a 54-run opening stand, the highest first wicket partnership for South Africa in this World Cup.
Brits was the more aggressive of the two as Wolvaardt was struggling to get going and was even dropped on 13. Brits took full use of the field restriction during the powerplay and kept the scoreboard ticking by hitting boundaries.
Wolvaardt ended her struggle of 19 off 28 balls when she was removed by all-rounder Ellyse Perry in the ninth over. But, Brits continued with her aggressive approach to keep the run-rate up and smashed a six and a four to Annabel Sutherland in the next over.
However, Brits got eventually dismissed on 45 off 36 deliveries, her highest score of the tournament, hitting six fours and a six as South Africa were 75/3 in 11.1 overs.
Four wins from four!
Australia have eased to a comfortable win over South Africa.
📝: https://t.co/EgA3XF406b#SAvAUS | #T20WorldCup | #TurnItUp pic.twitter.com/tPyhDBOg6G
— ICC (@ICC) February 18, 2023
After her dismissal, Australia fought back with regular wickets and never let South Africa come back into the game. South Africa scored 65 runs for the loss of one wicket in the first ten overs, while they could only manage to put 59 runs on the board in the final ten to put a total of 124/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
Despite South Africa skipper Sune Luus scoring 20 off 24 and Nadine de Klerk chipping in with her unbeaten 14 off 13, their contributions weren’t enough as the hosts managed to put a total which was easily chasable for a strong Australian batting line up.
For Australia, Legspinner Georgia Wareham took 2/18 from her three overs, while Megan Schutt (1/25), Darcie Brown (1/20), Ashleigh Gardner (1/25) and Perry (1/8) took one wicket each. Gardner picked up her 50th T20I wicket by getting Luus bowled in the final over.
In reply, Perry opened the innings for Australia in the absence of regular opener Alyssa Healy and was dismissed early in the fifth over by Marizanne Kapp, who was playing her first international match at her home ground.
Earlier, Healy was ruled out of the game “with some left quad awareness following a high workload on return to play from a significant calf injury,” according to Cricket Australia. Perry scored 11 off 8 balls, hitting a couple of fours before being caught at first slip by Tryon.
In the very next over which was the last over of the powerplay, Australia skipper Meg Lanning was bowled while trying to scoop the ball over fine leg by left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba, who opened the bowling with the new ball.
Opener Beth Mooney was trapped lbw in the next over by Kapp with a full inswinger. Mooney scored 20 off 25, hitting three fours and was looking good till she was out in the middle. At the end of seven overs, Australia were in a bit of trouble at 40/3 while chasing a small total.
However, Australia bounced back in the game with Gardner and McGrath stitching a match-winning partnership of 81 runs for the fourth wicket. McGrath came out attacking and was the more aggressive among the two, while Gardner kept rotating the strike.
McGrath reached her fifty in just 29 balls to score her first half-century in the ongoing T20 World Cup. With Australia needing just 4 runs to win, McGrath was dismissed on 57 off 33 balls, hitting ten fours off Masabata Klaas.
However, till then the damage was done with Grace Harris scoring the winning runs for Australia by hitting a four as Australia won the match by six wickets with 21 balls to spare. Gardner scored an unbeaten 28 off 29 balls, hitting three fours.
Kapp was the pick of the bowlers for South Africa taking 2/21 from her four overs, while Mlaba (1/29) and Klaas (1/18) took one wicket each.
Tahlia McGrath was named Player of the Match for her outstanding 57 off 33 balls.
Brief Scores: Australia 125/4 in 16.3 overs (Tahlia McGrath 57, Ashleigh Gardner 28*; Marizanne Kapp 2/21) beat South Africa 124/6 in 20 overs (Tazmin Brits 45, Sune Luus 20; Georgia Wareham 2/18) by six wickets.
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