ICC Women's World Cup 2022 | Pretty confident on the intel we have: Australia using WBBL to learn about SA

Australia and South Africa - two undefeated teams in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 will lock horns on Tuesday, 22 March. Wellington will play host to the top two teams in the World Cup at the moment bringing the end to a fantastic streak for one of the teams. 

That being said, these two teams have not played against each other in the ODI format since the World Cup in 2017, and that has brought a prospect of uncertainty for Australia keeper-batter Beth Mooney. 

"South Africa have been on a bit of a run and played a lot of consistent cricket across those five years against some world-class opponents as well,” Mooney said ahead of their clash.

As things stand, if South Africa win the game, they will qualify for the semi-finals alongside Australia who already have 10 points from 5 games played. Both teams have looked good, with Australia seeming like the team to beat in this tournament, but SA’s pace bowling combination of Shabnam Ismail and Marizanne Kapp, make Proteas a scary opposition.

"Unfortunately, we haven't had too much of an opportunity to come up against them … they've shown they've got a world-class bowling attack as well as batters that can win the game for them,” Mooney said on the matter.

However, she further added that Australia will have intel on the SA team via the Women’s Big Bash League.

"But we're pretty confident with the intel we have both playing with them in the WBBL and playing against some of the girls in that team that have been around for a long period of time,” the left hander explained.

"We'll be sharing that information amongst ourselves between the batting and the bowling unit and understanding that whilst we know what we're coming up against, it's always going to be a challenge against a team that's playing well and playing on confidence."

WBBL has emerged as one of the most sought after competitions in Women’s cricket, with a plethora of star players treating that competition how men treat the Indian Premier League.

However, Australia are not the only team that will take intel away from the WBBL. Proteas opener Laura Wolvaart echoed the same sentiments and stated that it goes both ways and SA will be prepared well for Australia.

"I think (the WBBL) helps a lot. (Australia are) one of the sides that we should be the most prepared for, because a lot of our girls have spent quite a lot of time playing against and in the same team as a lot of their players,” the opener said.

"But I guess it goes both ways, we might know their games a bit better but they might know ours a bit better as well," Wolvaart further added.

As things stand, Australia and South Africa are at the top of the table, in a league of their own. Australia however have a much bulkier NRR, but it would look very different if SA are able to make easy work out of them on Tuesday.