SA Women vs AUS Women, 21st Match at Wellington, Women's World Cup, Mar 22 2022 - Ball by Ball Commentary

5:43pm First loss for South Africa in this Women's World Cup, then. They are yet to nail a semi-final spot, as Luus mentioned. Among the other contenders for the top-four spot, India and Bangladesh are involved in a tussle you wouldn't want to miss. You can also follow the Australia-Pakistan Men's Test here. Meanwhile, you would want to take a look at the team of the tournament, after the ISL 2021-22 drew to a close, as I, S. Sudarshanan, sign off on behalf of Srivathsa and Venkat. Firdose's report will be up here soon. Ciao!

AussieBren: "South Africa have shown their batting and bowling can win them the tournament, but boy their fielding needs improvement after today. Reckon they had Australia in their pocket if they took chances."

Meg Lanning We thought it was par and the track got better towards the end of South African innings. It was a new wicket, so longer the sun beat on it, the better it got. I think they have been good pitches, we weren't able to get early wickets. But we held them in the middle overs. We did well to contain them despite not picking up wickets. Not sure about the extent of Perry's injury, but not too chase. We broke the back of it in the middle and got the run rate down. We are giving them too many chances which we don't need to. We haven't played Bangladesh before so have to come well prepared.

Sune Luus I think we had a great first innings and 270 was part. But Meg was excellent. It's always a difficult one, but on another day the bowling attack would have defended that. It is nice to contribute and the batters coming after us are also contributing, which helps us set big totals. We just lost it a bit on the field, probably lost a bit of focus. We will discuss it after the game and won't repeat it. Ismail bowled extremely well and was hitting Chetty's gloves hard. We need more from the spinners. We have got one day to prepare for West Indies, we haven't yet nailed the semis.

Nirban: "So far as batting is concerned, the main differences between Australia and all other sides are depth and intent. In the last game, India added only 77 in last 10 overs"

Kapp and Ismail churned out reliable performances with the ball, as usual, with Ismail cranking it up in the middle. But once she saw two catches go down in quick succession, she was fuming and we didn't see more of her with the ball. South Africa needs to perhaps address issues with the spin bowling and all eyes in practice would be on Nonkululeko Mlaba ahead of their next match.

The run-chase was all about Lanning, wasn't it. She came in early when Ismail breathed fire to dismiss Healy early. She also got a peach early on but the ball flew between the wicketkeeper and slip. There was almost no looking back from that point. However, it is to be said that she received plenty of assistance from the fielders who dropped catches as well as let fours through. Lanning could do well by sending them a thank you note.

Here's our man, Sampath with a stat: Most consecutive ODI wins while chasing:

18* - AUS Women (2018-)

17 - India Men (2005-2006)

15 - ENG Women (2008-2009)

15 - NZ Women (2015-2017)

14 - WI Men (1985-1986)

Meg Lanning is the Player of the Match for the second game in a row. It was nice to contribute. We speak a lot of the top four batting through and playing a match-winning innings. It was me today. I thought Ismail and Kapp bowled very well. I think I left many balls. Ismail did bowl quick and swing the momentum back towards South Africa in the middle. It's been nice to contribute in the few games. I wasn't as clinical as I needed to be before. It became clear to me that I had to bat through once we lost a couple of wickets early. The others did well to take the pressure off me. No.3 is a crucial position to impact the game.

5:27pm Clinical is to understate this Australian win. It has been a colossal win for Australia, who only assert their dominance in this competition. Today they flexed their batting muscles to the full, chasing down 272 with almost five overs to spare. This South African bowling unit was to challenge the Aussie juggernaut but they never turned up on the field, dropping a small number of seven catches.

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11 needed off 36 balls.