South Africa are lying second in the first-round standings, one point behind Australia.
Preparing for what could be their toughest challenge of the tournament thus far, the Proteas are confident they can beat Australia in a battle for top spot in the Women’s Cricket World Cup standings in Indore on Saturday (11.30am).
Ahead of their last match of the opening round, the SA team were lying second in the table (one point behind Australia) after winning their last five games in a row.
The unbeaten Australians were not only leading the log but were also the world’s top-ranked ODI team and the defending World Cup champions.
“We are looking forward to the opportunity to play against Australia and obviously we want to do well and finish top of the table,” said top-order batter Bosch, who was expected to return to the team after being dropped for the SA squad’s last two matches.
“But they’re a world-class team and very difficult to beat. They are the defending champions and they’ve been playing really good cricket the whole tournament, so it’s going to be a big challenge and a good contest, but I think if we just play our best cricket then the result will take care of itself.”
Not looking ahead yet
Both sides had already qualified for next week’s playoffs, but their positions in the table would determine who they faced in the semifinals.
Bosch, however, said they were not thinking that far ahead and were focussing on closing out the league stage of the tournament with another win.
“We’re not thinking about that at the moment. We just want to take it one game at a time and not look too far in the future,” she said.
“Whichever team we get in the semifinals, we will have to play our best cricket and it’s obviously going to be a massive contest no matter who we get.”
