Rampant Australia stand in South Africa’s path to glory

The lines wouldn’t have formed had South Africa not earned an unlikely but deserved victory over England in their semi-final at the same ground on Friday. That made Sune Luus’ team the first senior side from her country, men or women, to reach a World Cup final in any format.

Like making it to Newlands, getting to the decider hasn’t been simple for the South Africans. They shambled to two defeats in their four group games, putting in performances that would have buried them had they played like that in one more match. Mostly, their batters couldn’t match their bowlers. On Friday, bat met ball on something like equal terms and the result was astounding. Having scored a decent 164/4 – comfortably their highest total in their last seven T20Is in which they have batted first – South Africa took all eight England wickets to fall for 100 runs and won by six runs.

Their opponents on Sunday couldn’t have taken a more different route to the final. Australia were on auto-pilot throughout the group stage, where they never looked like losing. Only in their semi were they stretched. They made a serious 172/4, which India came within five runs of overhauling.

The wider narrative tells a similar story. Before Friday, South Africa had known the disappointment of five failed white-ball semifinals. There have been 19 women’s global tournaments and the Aussies have been to the final in 12 of them. Or maybe 13: there was no final in the first two ODI World Cups, in 1973 and 1978, which were decided on points. But England and Australia were the only unbeaten teams going into the last match in 1978. So it is considered a de facto final. Of those 13 tournaments, Australia have won 12. If David versus Goliath needs a reboot to bring it up to speed with an age in which women are taken more seriously in every sphere of life – and the gods know it does – this match fits the template.

The key contest looks likely to be Australia’s batters against South Africa’s pace bowlers, but the way the home side’s batters dealt with England’s crack attack says that theory could be in for a shake-up. Suddenly Tamzin Brits is five runs ahead of Alyssa Healy as the tournament’s highest remaining run-scorer, albeit from one fewer innings. But Ash Gardner is the leading wicket-taker left in the competition and no-one has a better economy rate than Grace Harris.

Only the stupid money would not be on Australia to clinch another title. They have too many threats in too many places, who have delivered accordingly, not to be outright favourites. Thing is, much the same could have been said about England before the semi-final. They encountered a South Africa team who had finally got over themselves well enough to play properly.

A jam-packed Newlands will be willing them to do so one more time with feeling on Sunday. Men might form most of the crowd, as they have in the past. The difference this time is that they won’t only watch a cricket match, or even a cricket match played by women. They will attend history in the making, and they will hope as hard as they dare, from the bottom of their hoary, hairy hearts, that they are on the side of the team who write it.