South Africa shows how beating Australia might be done

South African captain Kim Price thinks her side has done New Zealand and India a favour by showing them how Australia can be beaten.

That might seem strange after South Africa lost their CricInfo Women's World Cup semi-final by nine wickets at BIL Oval at Lincoln University today.

But it wasn't before South Africa succeeded in rattling the Australian bowlers.

Having won the toss and put the South Africans in, the Australians did not respond well to South Africa's batsmen taking the game to the bowlers.

"Maybe New Zealand can take something positive from what we have done," Price said.

"Cathryn Fitzpatrick's speed had been a problem for us before but we decided to take the game to her and we broke the spell she has had on us."

Fitzpatrick took only one wicket for 48 runs from her 10 overs. But the sight of 17-year-old Sunnette Viljoen standing tall and driving Fitzpatrick straight down the ground must have been an inspiration to her team, although Fitzpatrick eventually had Viljoen out caught on the mid-wicket boundary.

"We actually fear Charmaine Mason the most," Price said.

Mason bore that out by taking 3-39 and breaking up useful South African partnerships.

While Australian captain Belinda Clark wasn't too worried who Australia meets in the final she did warn that India could be unpredictable for New Zealand in Wednesday's semi-final.

"Whichever team wins is going to be playing pretty well," she said.

While Price announced her retirement after the game, she felt South Africa had reduced the gap between themselves and Australia and New Zealand.

"We lost to India, they didn't beat us. Since we started again in 1995 there has been a big improvement.

"There has been an improvement since our tour of England in June-July this year. Most of the team have been playing at this level for five years," she said.

With the development going on, especially at schools level in South Africa, she felt as long as the side got international competition they could have a good team when hosting the next World Cup in 2005.

Price also felt that, based on what she had seen at the Cup this year, New Zealand had bridged the gap on Australia.

"Australia is always the big one but if they are both in the final, and they both play to what they are capable of it could come down to BMT [big match temperament]."