England women defeated South Africa by 137 runs in the second semifinal of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup at Hagley Oval.
Danni Wyatt starred with the bat with a glorious 129 off 125 balls to set a formidable 294 run target on the board for the Proteas after being put to bat first.
Shabnim Ismail (3 wickets) and Marizanne Kapp (2 wickets) managed to break several batting stands but Wyatt and Sophia Dunkley added 116 runs together in the later stages to post a challenging total.
Dunkly supplemented the Centurian well, scoring 66 runs from 72 balls.
Chasing a tough target, South Africa were dealt an immediate body blow after losing their most prolific batter in Laura Wolvaardt in just the second over for a duck.
It was all downhill from there as England constantly broke through the budding partnerships to bowl out South Africa for 156.
Lara Goodall (29 runs), Sune Luss (21), Marizanne Kapp (21), Mignon du Preez (30), and Trisha Chetty (21) all had solid starts but failed to make much off them.
Sophie Eccelstone was responsible for dismissing 6 of the 10 batters with the spinner finishing with figures of 8-0-36-6.
England will face Australia in what is a repeat of the opening game of the tournament which the Aussies won in a close fashion.
South Africa meanwhile suffer another heartbreak at the penultimate hurdle with neither the men’s or women’s side reaching the final of a Cricket World Cup or T20 World Cup despite eight combined final-four appearances.
England has denied South African women from reaching the final for the third time in their history, twice in the 50-over tournament and once in the shorter format with Australia being responsible for the other two times.
Defending champions England, meanwhile, complete a remarkable comeback in reaching the final after losing the first three games of this year’s world cup
