Aussie spinner Alana King bamboozled the South African batters.
Australia cruised to a seven-wicket win against South Africa in the teams’ final pool matches at the Women’s Cricket World Cup in a match played in Indore, India, on Saturday to qualify top of the log ahead of next week’s semi-finals.
Both teams had already qualified for the semi-finals. England and India will also feature in the last-four.
Australia will now take on India and South Africa will face England in the semi-finals.
After winning five matches in a row, after losing badly to England in their opening game, Laura Wolvaardt’s team were easily undone by the Aussies on Saturday, being bowled out for a paltry 97 in 24 overs.
Only Wolvaardt, with 31 off 26, and Sinalo Jafta, with 29 off 17, asked a few questions of the Aussie bowlers.
Spinner Alana King, with stunning figures of 7/18 in seven overs, was the chief destroyer and helped ensure Australia remained unbeaten at the tournament. They are the best figures by an Australian in ODI cricket and the best in the World Cup.
Australia reached their target of 98 with three wickets down inside 17 overs. Georgia Voll, 38 not out, and Beth Mooney (42) led the chase.
Wolvaardt told a television interviewer after the match it was “definitely not the way we wanted to end the group stages.”
“Maybe it’s what we needed to wake up a little. But we’ve done a lot of good at this tournament and we’ll focus on that now. Hopefully a few players stick up their hands again in the semi-final,” said the Proteas skipper.
