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Some of the match-ups to look forward to in the first semi-final of the women’s World Cup

Vishal Dikshit28-Oct-20252:33

Kapp vs Knight, and other key match-ups to watch out for

Four-time champions England and now four-time semi-finalists South Africa are set to clash in a Women’s ODI World Cup semi-final for the third straight time. If 2017 was nothing less than heartbreak for South Africa, when they nearly defended 218 with two wickets left for England, 2022 was a lot more one-sided when South Africa managed only 156 in their chase of 294.Wednesday may or may not see a different result, but it will be chock full of cool match-ups. Here are some of them:

Kapp against England’s big names

Marizanne Kapp is the most experienced bowler in her side but is yet to put out her best show this World Cup. She will be banking on the experience of having played 21 matches against England for 29 wickets, her best against any team, including her only ODI five-for.Kapp usually takes the new ball for South Africa, which is just as well because she has dismissed opener Tammy Beaumont five times (for 146 runs), one of which was during the 2022 semi-final for a score of just 7. Beaumont, however, has four ODI centuries against the South Africans, the most by anyone against them.Related

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• For Nonkululeko Mlaba, cricket was a means to a better life but then she fell in love with it

Crucially, Kapp has a stellar record against England’s two best batters at this tournament – 5 for 100 against Heather Knight and 3 for 35 against Nat Sciver-Brunt.

What happens to South Africa against spin?

Seven. It’s a number that will be ringing in South Africa’s ears after seven of them fell to Alana King in their last game.Seven is also the wickets they lost to spin in their first match of this World Cup. England and Guwahati have come calling again, this time in a semi-final.Even if it’s not a skills thing, which is what captain Laura Wolvaardt said on Tuesday, it could still play in the mind if wickets start to fall to the slow bowlers again, or even if the runs start drying up.Left-arm spinners, in particular, have been a problem. South Africa have the lowest balls-per-wicket ratio (20.20) against them at this World Cup. England’s is 33.70 (second-best).2:30

Wolvaardt: ‘Have a really good chance of winning if we stay calm’

South Africa have given away 15 wickets (third-most) to left-arm spin at an average of 16.40 (third-worst) and England have two of them in Linsey Smith and Sophie Ecclestone, who is expected to recover from her injury and play on Wednesday.Wolvaardt, South Africa’s top-run-scorer in the competition, doesn’t score too quickly against Ecclestone (47 runs off 108 balls) and has also lost her wicket twice. Should she survive that match-up though, there is every chance she could go big. Wolvaardt is the only South African batter to have scored over 500 ODI runs against England.Conditions in Guwahati will also test South Africa in another way. A slow pitch is likely to be used for the semi-final, the kind that isn’t conducive to hitting a lot of boundaries. Wolvaardt’s team has found 57.1% of their runs through fours and sixes at this World Cup. They’ve got here playing one way. Will they stick to it, even when conditions demand something different, even when everything is on the line?

Who is going to get the runs then?

Irrespective of the surface and the occasion, both teams would want to collect quick runs at some point. South Africa will rely on their lower-order star Nadine de Klerk to belt out those big hits. And she in turn might eye Charlie Dean to pull it off. Their head-to-head reads 35 runs in 24 balls at a strike at 145.83, but with no sixes yet. Annerie Dercksen and Chloe Tryon have also struck at over-a-run-a-ball against Dean: 33 off 30 and 59 off 58 respectively. Tryon is also the only one from South Africa’s top seven to have struck Dean for two sixes.For England, Amy Jones, with two half-centuries in her last three outings, could be the one to push the pedal. She has a strike rate of 134.61 against de Klerk (35 off 26 balls) and 153.81 against Nonkululeko Mlaba (20 off 13), South Africa’s best bowler this tournament, without being dismissed by either of them.Some of the unmatchable strike rates for a match-up between these two teams belong to Danni Wyatt-Hodge. She has 39 off 19 (205.26) while facing de Klerk for one dismissal and 17 off 9 (188.88) against Mlaba for no dismissals.

South African’s ability to go hard from ball one has produced eye-popping returns from just 69 balls this tournament

Vithushan Ehantharajah29-Aug-2025Donovan Ferreira has only faced 69 balls in 2025’s Men’s Hundred which, on a £52,000 deal, works out at just over £750 per delivery.Yet speak to anyone at Oval Invincibles and they will tell you the South African batter is a bargain. One they initially acquired last season for the second of their back-to-back titles and who has now played a pivotal role in their quest for a three-peat.In Tom Moody’s finely cultivated Invincibles batting order, Ferreira brings the disorder. He is a finisher by trade; a batter lower down who has to start, as he puts it, “on the heater” to make the most of the few deliveries left in an innings. Of the 69 sent his way this season, he’s managed 169 runs, striking at an absurd 244.92.Only 17 of those runs have been on foot – that’s the same number of sixes he’s managed this competition. He is clearing the boundary once every four balls, broadly in line with his work since the start of the year. Among the 66 batters with 15 or more sixes across the four major leagues Ferreira has graced in 2025 – SA20, IPL, MLC and Hundred – he sits fourth, with one every 6.23 deliveries.The career T20 numbers speak of a man keener on the aerial route, with one more six (145) than fours across 98 innings. And while such feats can blur into one on the T20 treadmill – Ferreira has played 79 short-form games since the start of last year – there is one of those blows for which he can close his eyes and feel it all over again.Donovan Ferreira crashed a 24-ball fifty against Birmingham Phoenix•Getty Images”It’s one in this year’s SA20,” Ferreira tells ESPNcricinfo. “Against Naveen-ul-Haq – I hit him out of The Wanderers. He bowled a slower ball and… well, everyting just clicked. Straight on the roof.” It went 109 metres.”In fact, my next favourite six was three balls after, when I hit him on the other roof on the square leg boundary.” That one sailed 105 metres.It was midway through this season’s SA20 that Ferreira embarked on a remarkable purple patch. In all he managed a relatively modest 163 runs struck at 155.23 for Joburg Super Kings, alongside eight dismissals with his canny offspin (he can keep wicket, too). But that was followed by a brutal 248 runs at 213.79 for Texas Super Kings, while averaging 41.33.He arrived in south London a man in form, and better equipped to deal with the novelty of 20 fewer balls and the increments of 10 from each end.”In the last six months, I think my game has definitely gone to the next level,” Ferreira says. “If you look at SA20, it started getting better. And then MLC, I was fortunate to consistently dominate over there. In this year’s Hundred, be it five-ball, 20 or whatever the case is, my contributions were significant in most of the games.”Playing in the Hundred for the first time last year (122 runs in seven innings), it was a tricky format. I know the ball played a part, with with the ‘H’ on the ball making it swing a lot. But second season, you know the pitches, the grounds, the ins and outs. It makes it a lot easier.”You’re never really out of the game with the bat or the ball. And with the ten balls from one side, you can use that (as a batter). If you’re hitting it well, you don’t need to take a single or change your mindset as often in terms of the dimensions of the ground. Momentum-wise, it just massively favours whoever’s on top. At the back end, if you’re hitting it well, I don’t think many bowlers want to be bowling to you in that second five if you’ve dominated the first five. The bowler’s on the back foot from ball one because you’ve already been going and you’re not gonna slow down.”Ferreira sees no mystery to his craft. Long before these heady days, back at the age of 23 when he had to take on a full-time job as sales rep for cricket brand IXU after being released by Titans, he knew he had the ability to win games on his own. That, he believes, is something he was born with.Ferreira hit some of his biggest sixes of the year at the SA20•SA20″It’s similar to bowling 150kph. You can coach a guy as much as possible to pick up one or two yards, but if he’s got that natural ability, he’s got the natural ability. I think I’m fortunate enough to have that on my side.”Such birthrights seem to come with an ingrained belligerence. Now with Titans full-time, Ferreira left a post-season review two years ago with one point to work on – that his numbers against spin, specifically the ball turning away from him, were poor. Ever since, his strike-rate against spin outright has improved by almost 30 (141.32 pre-2024, to 169.1 post). Last summer, he almost single-handedly pulled Invincibles out of the mire against Northern Superchargers by taking apart Adil Rashid and Mitchell Santner, striking two sixes off each having come in at 59 for 4 in pursuit of 146. He was the penultimate batter to fall, for 49 off 24, with only two of his teammates making it into the teens.His ability to go hard so early is another trait. In five of his six innings for Invincibles this term, he has struck at least one boundary in his opening three deliveries. On three occasions, they have been sixes, including his first ball against Welsh Fire, which was followed by a four. “Funnily enough, I did my side in SA20 doing that,” he laughs when asked if it is as simple as swinging wildly out of the gates.The science, for what it’s worth, happens not just before he steps on the field, but before he leaves his hotel room. Before one MLC match, Ferreira found cleaning his room therapeutic and decided to make that a routine. It is his way of maintaining order, literal decluttering for its figurative benefits, before indulging his own chaos out in the middle.”I’d just wake up and clean my room in the morning. It never really bothers me prior to game-day, but game-day, I just want everything to be… aligned. All of a sudden it feels like I’m OCD, which I’m not at all! But it’s a weird thing.”The role I have, it’s never the same. So, if I can control my environment to be neat and tidy, it… actually, I don’t know psychologically what it does, but I think it just keeps me nice and calm.

I’d just wake up and clean my room in the morning. All of a sudden it feels like I’m OCD, which I’m not at all! But it’s a weird thing

“I also listen to music, maybe for an hour, when I’m getting ready, packing my clothes, before we have to meet. Sometimes it’s some sing-along, some days I listen to some club music. Nothing specific that I listen to, but it’s when I’m getting ready in the hotel. It’s just literally just headphones on, just zoning in. It gets me away from the world, gets me away from distractions.”Strip away the role and there is a 27-year-old who still regards himself as young and is both aware he needs to evolve as a cricketer and that cricket does not define him as a person. He has lost all this once before. Even riding this wave, Ferreira knows it could go in a flash, and he is at peace with that.The one wave Ferreira has yet to truly get on has been with the national team. To date, he has six T20I caps for South Africa. He was omitted from their white-ball tour of Australia but will join up with the Proteas for the T20I series against England next month.Ferreira was told to throw his lot in with the Hundred for August by Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach before stepping down in April. Invincibles’ penchant for a settled line-up meant they were more than happy to retain him, having released Spencer Johnson, in the expectation that he would be playing for Australia in those matches before back soreness ruled him out.Related

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Nevertheless, Ferreira was a little surprised when he saw the squad picked for that tour, unsure whether the agreement with Walter had been passed on to new all-encompassing head coach Shukri Conrad. He decided against seeking clarification: “It’s not really my position to pick up the phone and ask what’s happening – I’ve only played six games, right? It’s just me knowing my place.”As it happens, his “place” in the current South Africa XI is well-stocked. Even with the retirement of Heinrich Klaasen, the middle order overflows with power – the experience of David Miller and the exciting young duo of Dewald Brevis and Tristan Stubbs. Stubbs is also the reason Ferreira was limited to a supersub cameo for Delhi Capitals in the latest edition of the IPL.What gives, South Africa – why all the finishers? Is it something in the braai?”I’m not sure why it is like that,” Ferreira replies, somewhat miffed. “I reckon we just hit the ball nice and hard. It’s similar to the West Indians, they’ve got that style of play.”I think it is something that we’ve been taught from a younger age, to hit nice and straight. You get private coaching when you’re younger, so it’s very technical. I’m not sure if the school grounds are bigger. I think we’re just blessed as a country to have all these power hitters in that role.”Klass bats a bit higher. Stubbs sometimes in domestic cricket bats a bit higher, but he’s successful at the finishing role as well. When Miller goes back, he bats four. I’ve stuck at six. I just think maybe we get an opportunity at that (finisher) role first. When you get into the team, if you look at all those players, they’re all started at six, seven.”Even with a T20 World Cup at the turn of the year, Ferreira maintains his focus on where he is right now, which is preparing for another Hundred final on Sunday at Lord’s. And then, he affords himself a moment to think ahead.”I would love to go and it would be an amazing experience. I think that’s the ultimate, to win a World Cup. If I get selected or not, it’s, it’s in their hands.”It’s similar in the leagues. All you can do is try and perform so that you hope to get selected the next year. As long as you give the coaches no reason to let you go, or not to come back, that’s all you can control. There’s no straightforward answer to any of selection questions, and I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong answer, you know?”

On day two, just as on day one, Australia bossed the twilight zone in Adelaide

Alagappan Muthu07-Dec-2024Rohit Sharma looked like the most lonesome person in the world as he trekked back to the dressing room. It’s a good thing they’re square of the wicket in Adelaide. Shorter walk.Australia picked up five wickets in the night session. Were it not for Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland overstepping, they could have got them earlier and built on them further. Sometime in the lead-up to Travis Head’s century, it felt like they might be trying something like this. Bowling with the new pink ball in twilight. It’s almost the be-all-end-all of this format.Related

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India found themselves in a similar situation on day one when they found themselves with a seven-over-old pink ball at sunset. They were able to take only one wicket.”Yeah, I think for me if I can just rewind the clock to the first Test match, I thought our lines and lengths were exceptional and I think that was sort of the blueprint for us going into this series,” bowling coach Morne Morkel said, “We wanted to bring the stumps into play as much as possible and I felt last night with the ball moving around a little bit we missed that.”In their day-night practice match in Canberra, India discovered that the pink ball responded more when you hit the pitch on a good length. So that’s what they did when they got the new ball under lights last night. According to ESPNcricinfo ball-by-ball data, 104 of their first 198 deliveries landed exactly where they wanted it to. But only around 15% of those good-length balls ended up in line with the stumps. Many of the rest behaved a little more erratically than they were prepared for, and by the time they could recalibrate, Australia had seen off the toughest of the conditions to bat in.”Thirty overs seems to be about the mark at Adelaide Oval that for my whole career, that’s the sort of, red ball, pink ball, that’s the time where you sort of have to put in and invest and then it feels like the wicket gets slightly easier to bat on.” Travis Head, an Adelaide native, said.1:07

Where did India’s bowlers go wrong in Adelaide?

India’s second innings began with them 157 runs behind. They were under siege by an amped-up crowd and in the crosshairs of a revved-up bowling unit. Pat Cummins picked up the first wicket and the team-mates he didn’t high-five were probably the luckiest people on earth. Those he did might be sneaking ice-packs into their hotel rooms.Australia also targeted the good-length area. It accounted for 78 of 144 deliveries, and 24% of them posed a threat to the stumps because, ironically enough, in their hands the ball wasn’t moving as much. In their hands, it did just enough to beat the middle of the bat, leaving both edges and the stumps in play.One of them was the ball that had Rohit’s name on it, leaving him with two single-digit scores in his first outing after leading India to a 3-0 defeat at home. He moved down to No. 6 so as not to disrupt the opening combination that had won them the first Test. It also offered him a chance – if everything went well – to come in against the old ball, which sounds like the kind of leg up a batter who hasn’t had as much time to acclimatise to the conditions might find useful. It could be argued that Rohit dropping down the order was as much a concession as it was strategic. And it still didn’t work. He was adjudged lbw off what turned out to be a no-ball on 0, though there was a suggestion of an inside edge and an immediate gesture to review, and bowled neck and crop on 6.A few days ago Mohammed Siraj spoke about how the pink ball, when it was pitched up, didn’t really do a lot. Australia saw virtue in that. They ran the risk of being driven and flicked for four, which Shubman Gill did quite well, but given the vagaries of the pink ball, the magic of the night session and a first-innings lead, they could afford to take those hits. They could gamble in search of what happened in the 18th over when Gill was clean bowled. Starc got that ball to swing in late, seam in further, and beat the closed face of the bat to crash into the stumps.India had to spend a lot of time to home in on the line and length that accounted for the seam and swing. Eighty of their first 198 deliveries were left alone. Australia could settle in a lot quicker. They only allowed India to leave the pink ball 29 times in the window when it tends to do the most damage. This, as much as anything else, has led to the game being where it is. The night session of a day-night Test, it’s influence is irresistible.

Arsenal are stacked in almost all areas of the pitch after a summer of lavish spending, but they could still potentially benefit from another option for the left-wing as they eye AC Milan star Rafael Leao.

Mikel Arteta’s attacking line has looked strong this season, especially with the additions of Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres, but questions remain over the depth and certainty at left-wing.

Gabriel Martinelli, who is currently out injured, has made a real impact from the bench as Arsenal’s super-sub this season, though doubts remain over the Brazilian’s long-term future.

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Athletic Bilbao 0-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 1-1 Man City

Port Vale 0-2 Arsenal

Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 2-0 Olympiacos

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid

Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace

Arsenal 2-0 Brighton

His contract expires in 2027 and there have been no reports of a potential extension, despite Andrea Berta moving to tie down the likes of Gabriel, William Saliba, Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and actively talking to Bukayo Saka about a new long-term contract.

Leandro Trossard, who’s also contributed towards Arsenal’s brilliant run and scored the winner away to Fulham, presents some uncertainty too.

Like Martinelli, the 30-year-old’s contract runs out in 2027, with Trossard signing a new and improved deal recently which didn’t include an extension.

Eze can play on the left-wing when required, as he has done multiple times already this season in the Premier League, with the England international deployed there in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Brighton in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

This frees up space for teenage sensations Max Dowman – who became Arsenal’s youngest ever starter against the Seagulls – and Ethan Nwaneri to play more centrally.

Arsenal’s youngest ever starters

First start

player

opponent

competition

age

Oct 2025

Max Dowman

Brighton

League Cup

15 years 302 days

Sep 2024

Jack Porter

Bolton

League Cup

16 years 72 days

Oct 2003

Cesc Fàbregas

Rotherham

League Cup

16 years 177 days

Sep 2008

Jack Wilshere

Sheff United

League Cup

16 years 266 days

While there is a case to be made that signing another left-winger could hinder Dowman and Nwaneri’s pathway to regular first team minutes, Berta must also think about shoring up the position with outside talent, as Martinelli and Trossard near the exit door.

Rafael Leao's stance on joining Arsenal as Berta eyes left-wing upgrade

According to TEAMtalk, Arsenal’s sporting director is doing just that, and they’re real fans of Leao.

The Portugal international has scored four goals in six games already this season, despite missing the opening of Milan’s campaign with a calf injury.

The Rossoneri are contenders for this year’s Serie A title after a fine start to 25/26, losing just one league game so far, and Leao will be key to their charge as Milan look to topple Antonio Conte’s Napoli.

The £108,000-per-week forward, who has a £132 million release clause in his deal, will cost a premium for any English side in January, but Arsenal view Leao as the “ideal left-wing upgrade”.

They’re also encouraged by his stance on a potential move to north London, as it is believed that Leao is “very open” to talks if a Premier League side formally approaches.

While Leao loves Milan and is happy in his current surroundings, he’s “ready to listen” to a potential offer from England, as the Premier League holds great appeal to him.

The 26-year-old, who bagged 16 goal contributions for Milan in the top flight alone last year, was also their second-best player by average behind Christian Pulisic in 2024/2025 (WhoScored).

Leao completed more successful take-ons per 90 than any other player in Milan’s squad that campaign (WhoScored), so the appeal to Arsenal is obvious, but the question is just how much Berta would be willing to invest.

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Liverpool’s crisis has deepened, with a point gained against Leeds United at Elland Road only fanning the flames that have engulfed the Merseyside outfit this season, so brittle and flimsy and susceptible to crumbling at the slightest flash of danger.

After the draw, shining light Dominik Szoboszlai was breathless and incredulous, echoing, surely, the disbelief of so many of a Reds persuasion across the globe. How has it come to this? Why are the Premier League champions so incapable of completing the basics?

Szoboszlai is the cream of a withered crop on Merseyside right now, but it’s clear, proven, that he can’t do it alone. Liverpool have so many strugglers, and who better to epitomise Slot’s side’s collapse than Ibrahima Konate?

Ibrahima Konate's performance at Elland Road

Konate, 26, is out of contract at the end of the season, and while this should be a season of importance for the Frenchman, winning better terms at Anfield or canvassing his qualities for suitors from elsewhere, he has not fallen but plummeted by the wayside.

It was a needless challenge on substitute Wilfred Gnonto, and that sparked the home side’s comeback. This was hardly an outlier for the hulking centre-half.

But, away from the most glaring blunders, Konate also lacks any semblance of control or confidence, and surely Slot has got to consider dropping him now, with the star having started every single Premier League match so far this season.

When are the mistakes going to stop? When is the storm going to abate? Konate, for all his woes this season, is not the only Liverpool defender who is flattering to deceive.

In fact, the France international’s scrutiny, an intense spotlight beaming onto him at all times, is detracting from the consistent problems of another.

Liverpool superstar could now be dropped

Virgil van Dijk has been a pillar of strength for so many years at Liverpool, but we are receiving a bitter taste of life without such a player in the rearguard, with the 34-year-old brought down from his indomitable self this season.

That missed deal for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi on transfer deadline day at the start of September continues to look more damning, and sporting director Richard Hughes is bound to be weighing up a move for the England international, whose contract at Selhurst Park expires in June, this winter, lest Liverpool’s crisis devolve into something even worse.

To say that Van Dijk, Liverpool’s supreme captain, should be dropped is a bold claim. Some would say brazen. Many would disagree.

However, the Netherlands captain has been woefully out of sorts over the past couple of months, and Konate’s error-strewn displays have disguised his own shambolic efforts. Liverpool were under the cosh at times, but Van Dijk did not step forward and make a tackle, not one.

He put Liverpool in danger with a careless headed backpass in the first half that required intervention from Konate, and he has lost the confidence and clarity that has been firmly fixed for the lion’s share of his illustrious Liverpool career.

The 34-year-old was handed a 6/10 match rating by The Liverpool Echo, largely due to his aerial dominance, but this was hardly a convincing display from the skipper, nor was it a good representation of his leadership ability.

Minutes played

90′

90′

Touches

62

83

Shots (on target)

1 (1)

1 (0)

Accurate passes

40/49 (82%)

57/62 (92%)

Chances created

0

0

Dribbles

0/0

0/0

Ball recoveries

4

1

Tackles won

1/2

0/0

Interceptions

0

1

Clearances

4

15

Duels won

7/10

12/14

Neither centre-back has covered themselves in glory for Liverpool this season – far from it – and with the January transfer window fast approaching, it feels likely that a deal will be explored, frantically, for Palace’s Guehi or any number of other earmarked targets who might restore some balance to a team that have lost their way – and are showing little sign of escaping from the bog.

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Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda chat to Gardner on fitness, body image and how Australia are looking for a World Cup edge

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Aug-20251:32

Gardner: ‘Body image is a big one around female athletes’

Australian allrounder Ash Gardner chats to Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda about how The Hundred franchise tournament can offer valuable cues ahead of the 50-over World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. She also gives insights on how the Aussies are able to set fitness benchmarks, discusses body image and talks about her captaincy style.