Proteas focus on Australia but semifinals loom

South Africa has no interest in who they will face in the World Cup semifinals next week and are solely focused on ending Australia’s long unbeaten run in the tournament, when the sides meet in Indore on Saturday.

Both teams secured their playoff spots at the tournament long ago, and their round-robin clash will determine who finishes atop the points table and thus gets to face India, who are guaranteed to finish fourth, in the knockouts.

“We just want to take each game at a time and not look too far in the future,” said Proteas batter Anneke Bosch.

The last time Australia lost a World Cup match was in the semifinals against India in 2017, and they have since won 14 of their next 15 matches in the tournament.

The only time they haven’t won was when their fixture with Sri Lanka was washed out in Colombo.

“They’re the best team in the world. It’s really difficult to beat them,” said Bosch.

The Proteas have certainly found that to be the case, having won just once in 18 ODIs against the current World Cup holders.

Bosch scored 44 in that match in Sydney last year when the Proteas defended 229 in a rain-interrupted fixture.

Bosch’s most memorable career moment came against Australia in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup last year, where an unbeaten 74 helped knock the Australians out of that tournament.

She has found that kind of form difficult to rekindle at this year’s ODI World Cup.

After playing in SA’s first four matches, where her best score was 28 against Bangladesh, Bosch was omitted for both matches in Colombo.

“It’s cricket and you’re not always going to get the runs that you want,” she said.

“I’ve got some good memories about playing against Australia so that’ll be a bit of a confidence booster, if I play.”

Annerie Dercksen, who was slated to be a breakout star at the tournament has yet to take advantage of the opportunities offered to her in the last three matches.

She’s scored just two and nine, and hasn’t featured with the ball.

After losing to England in their opening match, the Proteas have won their next fixtures but they are still searching for an all-round performance where every facet of the team clicks.

Australia, despite being unbeaten have also had some issues but the class and depth at their disposal has meant they dug themselves out of several holes throughout the tournament.

“We’ve been pretty consistent with how we prepare for teams individually and from a planning point of view,” said Tahlia McGrath, who led Australia in their last match against England, which Alyssa Healy missed because of injury.

“We’ve looked at South Africa in detail and we think we match up pretty well.”