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1 hour ago
4
Key events
1st over: England 3-0 (Wyatt-Hodge 1, Amy Jones 2) Marizanne Kapp has grabbed a wicket with her first ball twice already in this tournament – but not this time as the ball passes safely outside Amy Jones’ off stump. Jones picks up a single bringing run-machine Wyatt-Hodge to the crease. But there are no gimmies and she wafts and misses twice in a row going for the cut.
An early email as the flag ceremony unfurls itself at The Oval.
Hello Dean Kinsella! “Good evening Tanya. What’s the weather there in London? Lovely cricketing weather here in Mayo. This is such an exciting prospect of a game. Hard to call. Saffers have match winners in their side. England’s line-up looks so strong even without Sophie. Let’s do it!”
It looks lovely at The Oval, the sun is kissing the players faces as they file out, t-shirts in the crowd, a balmy 25 degrees in London at the moment. An excellent crowd that will only get bigger as people file in after work – they’re expecting 20,000 through the turnstiles. Big love for the lovely South African national anthem, and a bright and breezy version of our dirge – NSB and Charlie Dean exchange smiles. Here we go!
Whoever wins this game has the unappetising prospect of facing up to Australia in the final at Lord’s on Sunday. They thrashed West Indies by eight wickets on Tuesday.
Afterwards, West Indies captain Hayley Matthews had something to say on the “unfair” distribution of money in women’s cricket.
Raf has just hared over to The Oval “from a lovely reception at the Foreign Office to celebrate the Afghanistan women’s cricket team. Richard Gould was there too, and is now here - somehow got here quicker than me, despite horrendous traffic between Whitehall and The Oval (ECB private jet maybe?) It is VERY busy - so busy they’ve closed the road - which is quite an exciting sign!”
South Africa XI
South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Annerie Dercksen, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Nadine de Klerk, Chloe Tryon, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba.
England XI
England: Amy Jones (wk), Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.
Sophia Dunkley misses out
NSB would have had a bowl too. She says the calf is as good as it could be and she’s really happy with where she is. Poor old Sophia Dunkley misses out.
South Africa win the toss and will bowl!
Woolvaardt: “I think The Oval is quite a hard ground to defend so we’ll have a bat later. We have room for improvement but I think that’s the exciting thing - we’ve found ourselves in the semis without having fully found our feet.”
Preamble
Hello London, hello Cape Town – here we are again for another big beast battle between the hosts and the losing finalists in the last World Cup.
England have soared though their knock-out games undefeated, even without Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is back today wearing the captain’s armband. It has been more of a slog for South Africa but they know how to win these games and Laura Woolvaardt is yet to fire fully – keeping her powder dry for today?
We will soon find out. The toss is imminent, let’s go to The Oval.
