South Africa chose to bowl vs Australia

South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and inserted an Alyssa Healy-less Australia to bat first in the first semi-final of Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. The game is a rematch of the final of the last edition.

Six-time champions Australia continued to miss their captain Healy, who was at the ground without a moonboot. “Healy is progressing and continues to be assessed” was the official word from the Australian camp. They went in unchanged from their last league game, where they eked out a nine-run win over India, with explosive batter Grace Harris carded to open with Beth Mooney, who will once again keep wicket.

Choosing to bowl first, Wolvaardt reasoned that the ball “comes on better in the second half”. South Africa too went unchanged.

This pitch hosted two games – New Zealand vs India and India vs Sri Lanka – previously in the tournament but was without much grass cover on Thursday. “This pitch has more runs as compared to others because the colour is lighter,” Sana Mir said at the pitch report. She also said that it had something for fast bowlers. The square boundaries were 57 metres and 63 metres, and the straight one was 73 metres.

South Africa won a T20I for the first time against Australia only earlier this year.

Australia: 1 Grace Harris, 2 Beth Mooney (wk), 3 Georgia Wareham, 4 Tahlia McGrath (capt), 5 Ellyse Perry, 6 Ashleigh Gardner, 7 Phoebe Litchfield, 8 Annabel Sutherland, 9 Sophie Molineux, 10 Megan Schutt, 11 Darcie Brown

South Africa: 1 Laura Wolvaardt (capt), 2 Tazmin Brits, 3 Anneke Bosch, 4 Marizanne Kapp, 5 Chloe Tryon, 6 Sune Luus, 7 Annerie Dercksen, 8 Nadine de Klerk, 9 Sinalo Jafta (wk), 10 Nonkululeko Mlaba, 11 Ayabonga Khaka