Analysing the performances of South Africa and England along with other factors and previewing the semi – final match between them in the ICC CWC22.
The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup is done with League Stage and is just so close to the Semi – Finals, with one combination same as in 2017, the other seeing West Indies replacing India after West Indies qualified by 1 point over India, having received it in a rained out match. The 4 Semi – Finalists have had completely different storylines to there qualifications, and that reflects their chances but anything could happen with some huge miss – outs and ofcourse the semi – finals pressure.
RAIN, MISSES AND MORE – HOW THEY QUALIFIED
Firstly, how did they qualify. South Africa had a mixed bag, but had much more success than failures in terms of overall results, winning 4 matches, and having one rained out. England won on their own victories but could have been eliminated even after 4 of their matches in what was a recovery world cup for them after the first match.
South Africa, although qualified after good performances, failed to still completely win as a team, and win convincingly and that is what has them requiring to improve in every match.
England had a horror start, and with their schedule had to face all tough teams first and then move onto Bangladesh and Pakistan. Their losses to West Indies and South Africa were the highlights of the mistakes they made but the players slowly and steadily came into their own.
SOUTH AFRICA
The side has reached the semi – finals, even after missing out on their captain and important all – rounder Dane Van Niekerk, and some dismal performances from both their batters and bowlers, they have managed to qualify for the semi – finals on the basis of them having won 5 of their 7 matches, and losing one with the remaining one match being a washout. The issue for the side has mainly been that the players, whom they not necessarily depend on but fill in those crucial spots failed to fire for majority of the tournament while batting and this set them back a bit. Their bowlers picked their fair share of wickets but again they were good but not the manner in which the side is generally setup, which although shows the issues also shows how strong this side is.
It has been less if a story of their runs scored but more about how many wickets the opposition has taken and who has been dismissed. Laura Wolvaardt has scored 29.88 percent of the total runs that SA have scored in the World Cup, excluding the abandoned match wherein Wolvaardt scored 3 of the 61 runs that her side scored before the already shortened match got rained out. And it hasn’t been that they haven’t lost many wickets so huge partnerships were formed by Wolvaardt, on average SA has lost 8 wickets while batting first and 8 wickets while chasing as well, winning while chasing all three times in the final over of the game, in the 50th over of the game. At the same time the side has taken 49 wickets in 6 matches.
On the positive side, the side has acknowledged this. From the first match against Bangladesh onwards they knew that they are lacking their true performance and have tried to work towards it in a busy and short time and have fixed certain issues or have luckily had some issues fixed on time. Du Preez has not wholly changed her approach but has now been a bit more cautious and gotten some luck on her side finally. This has meant that her run off getting cheaply dismissed by spin has changed into a healthy run scoring run with a healthy strike rate. The judgement has improved and well, she has not again had the bad luck of Gardner taking a screamer one handed catch. This has not only taken ff the pressure from Marizanne Kapp who was playing the complement to Laura Wolvaardt, but also allowed SA to win even after Kapp had a couple of errors towards the end f the league stage.
ENGLAND
England’s bad starting spree’s one reason was also that they did not get a free out match early on, with West Indies being a good side at the start. Their issues were that a majority of their players did not be in form and there was the issue that they even failed in fielding. Fielding or rather mis – fields cost them a lot. Their batting line – up had the following issue, which is basically that they new batters did not take time or weren’t able to get set first because they did not take that approach first. There was a sense of discomfort and hence, there were either a series of batters getting out for low scores, single digit scores or a high scoring batter was followed by a single digit scoring batter. Their fielding started to get together and clean from about their 4th match, which was against India, and their batting came into form from their 6th math only, which was against Pakistan followed by a match against Bangladesh. Although, Bangladesh isn’t as strong an opponent but the good news for the English side or the positive takeaway was that they did not cripple down or be thwarted down while batting against a somewhat disciplined bowling unit of Bangladesh.
Their fielding was a comedy of errors often. It had them lose a game they had no chances of losing. They were the opposite of Australia while fielding. The wicket – keeper Amy Jones did not have a good league stage with the bat but worse was that she even faltered majorly at times while wicket – keeping. There isn’t a specific weakness for them in terms of what can beat them, but rather it is them themselves who have not been able to still completely and comprehensively settle. And in that line, they do not have that one player who can be dependent on or who will bring their downfall if failed. It has been a spread for them but that is although meaning that there isn’t a specific player to depend on but also means that there is a good chance they all fail together.
WHO WINS IT?
England. South Africa will be hoping that the English side plays – bats, and fields – like they did in their league stage match but the English side has improved and although not comprehensive in general, has ben more comprehensive in their recovery and performance by the end of the 7 matches that they have an edge over South Africa who are still waiting for complete revival of performance and form.
|IT WILL BE A CLOSE CLASH|
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