England, Australia and South Africa booked their places in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup with a game to spare after convincing wins on Wednesday.
England continued their good form with a 75-run victory over New Zealand, while Australia bounced back from defeat against the hosts to score an eight-wicket win over India and South Africa defeated Sri Lanka, also by eight wickets.
England and Australia both moved to 10 points with England placed at the top of the points table owing to a better net run-rate.
Photo: Reuters
South Africa were third with nine points.
India and New Zealand were on eight and seven points respectively, with the winner of their final match tomorrow set to take the last semi-final berth.
Meg Lanning inspired defending champions Australia to victory with an excellent 79 not out with seven fours and one six, even after Megan Schutt and Ellyse Perry had taken two wickets each to restrict India to 226-7 from their 50 overs.
Lanning and Perry then saw Australia home with just under five overs to spare.
Natalie Sciver scored an excellent 129 from 111 deliveries as England beat New Zealand by 75 runs in Derby.
Sciver hit 11 fours on the way to her quick-fire century. Tammy Beaumont hit 93 as England scored 284 from their 50 overs.
Alex Hartley was the pick of the England bowlers as she took 3-44 as no New Zealand batter scored a half-century.
New Zealand Captain Suzie Bates top scored with 44 as they were bowled out for 209.
“That knock rates pretty highly for me,” Sciver said.
“When I went in [at 52-3] and saw Tammy, we knew we needed a partnership,” she said.
In the other game, South Africa booked a place in the semis with a comfortable victory over Sri Lanka as Dane van Niekerk starred.
She took her third four-wicket haul as Sri Lanka was bowled out for 101, while South Africa made that in 23.1 overs for the loss of just two wickets.
“I could get used to winning like this,” Van Niekerk said. “It shows the hard work the girls have put in and that it is paying off.”
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Taiwanese “boxing queen” Chen Nien-chin today won the women’s 65kg division final at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships in Ulaanbaatar, securing Taiwan’s first gold medal in that weight class at the tournament. Chen defeated North Korea’s Hwang Hyo Sun 4-1, after the two were tied through the first two rounds. Chen won bronze in the 66kg division at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
RSS