South Africa reach Women's T20 World Cup semifinals after beating Bangladesh

Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits struck unbeaten half centuries during their unconquered 117run opening partnership as South Africa thrashed Bangladesh by 10 wickets to reach the semifinals of the ICC Womens T20 World Cup hereThe Proteas finished second in Group 1 behind defending champions Australia who won all their four matchesSouth Africa New Zealand and Sri Lanka ended their group engagements on four points each But the hosts made it to the semifinals as they have the best net run rate of 0738 among the three teamsNew Zealand and Sri Lanka have NRR of 0138 and 1460 respectivelyThe Sune Luusled side thus became the first South African team male or female junior or senior to reach the final four of a major ICC event staged on their soilSouth Africa play Group 2 toppers England who are unbeaten so far in the second semifinal here on FridayWolvaardt 66 not out off 56 balls and Brits 50 not out off 51 balls struck their teams first halfcenturies of the tournament as South Africa overhaul Bangladeshs 114run target with 13 balls to spare reaching 117 for no loss in 175 overs on TuesdayBangladesh opted to bat and the Proteas struck twice in the powerplay with Murshida Khatun chipping Marizanne Kapp to midon for a sixball duck and Shamima then skying Shabnim Ismail to midwicketAlso readWomens T20 World Cup England script history thrash Pakistan by 114 runsFrom 22 for two skipper Nigar Sultana Joty and Sobhana Mostary carefully rebuilt the innings and rotated strike nicely without peppering the boundarySobhana was dropped by Brits on 25 but the thirdwicket stand was snapped at 33 when she missed a slog sweep across the line and Nonkululeko Mlaba hit the stumpsThe 16yearold Shorna Akter showcased her talent by lofting Mlaba over midoff but soon departed when she was yorked by Ayabonga Khaka at 81 for fourKapp came back and showed her class with a slower ball that got the big wicket of Nigar Sultana comprehensively bowled for 30Khaka repeated the yorker trick to get rid of Fargana Hoque but as the Proteas began to tire in the field Bangladesh inched their way up to 113 for sixSouth Africas reply was a fraught affair from the very startNine runs came from the first four overs Brits was dropped by Sobhana and Wolvaardt somehow survived a mixup in the middleWolvaardt hit a towering six over midon but Brits only survived thanks to Shamima missing two stumping chances off the spinners as they crawled to 43 for no loss from 10 oversThe pressure gradually eased and the muchneeded big overs eventually cameBrits peeled backtoback boundaries off Shornas legspin and Wolvaardt brought up her halfcentury from 48 balls by flaying Nahida Akter twice through the offsideBrits brought up her sixth T20 International halfcentury and two balls later Wolvaardt struck successive boundaries to put her side in the final fourThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever