If respecting one's elders in international cricket is part of the deal, Phoebe Litchfield didn't get the memo. She ripped into South Africa's veteran, returning seamer, Shabnim Ismail, to play the defining innings of a clash that could prove decisive in deciding the semi-final line-up. After one match, Australia already have one foot in the knockouts and that's no exaggeration.
This is a group of three powerhouses - Australia, India and South Africa - and the matches between them are expected to decide who progresses. Australia already have a big win over South Africa, who now must beat India, and everyone else in the group to keep their chances alive. The permutations can be discussed another day, for now it's to dissect why and how they folded against a team they backed themselves to beat.
A glance at the scorecard will tell you the batting was substandard - and the indecision over their No. 3 is something South Africa need to address - but the match pulled Australia's way earlier, when Litchfield slammed a 23-ball fifty. Twenty-nine of her runs came off Ismail (off 11 balls), a bowler she had never faced at international level before and who had the better of her in their league meetings. In eight innings, Ismail had dismissed Litchfield four times. The Australian clearly has a short memory.
She played the first ball from Ismail, which was short and angling away, with soft hands so that even though she got the edge, it was short of Chloe Tryon at slip. The next delivery was shorter and hit Litchfield on the shoulder. Another batter may have backed down; Litchfield did the opposite. "She just runs at any challenge," Georgia Wareham said at the post-match press conference. "She always wants to take the game on."
Which is exactly what she did. Ismail went short again in the next over and Litchfield swivel-pulled her over square leg. Ismail persisted and Litchfield played the same shot over Sinalo Jafta and was suddenly on 15 off nine balls. But it was the next over, Ismail's third, that Litchfield really imposed herself. She slapped the first ball through the covers for four, laced the second through backward point and as Ismail defaulted to the length she is most comfortable with - short - Litchfield pulled off her best version of that shot, six over deep backward square. She was 41 off 19 balls and the momentum had completely swung Australia's way.
"That was the difference," Nadine de Klerk acknowledged afterwards.
Though there was still a lot of cricket to play, and South Africa came back when they had Australia 120 for 5 in the 14th over, the fearlessness and ferocity of Litchfield's knock was crucial. In hindsight, Ismail should not have bowled a third over but Laura Wolvaardt was convinced to keep her on after she took a wicket in her second over and because of the reputation she comes with. Incidentally, Ismail was then off the field for much of the rest of the innings with a finger niggle.
In another version of hindsight, Ismail should have pitched it up to Litchfield, like she did to Beth Mooney, who drove away from her body and edged behind. And in the version of reality that actually exists, Litchfield was ready for anything and played a knock Australia knew she could.
"She was awesome. She took the game on. When she is playing those kinds of shots, it's pretty hard to look away," Wareham said. "To see her over the last 12 months has been awesome. She is such a champion out there and I don't think anything will slow her down."
The same could be said of Australia. Talked about as a team in transition, by everyone including South Africa, Australia brushed that aside with a dominance of old. Crucially they also selected the right team. Selecting all four spinners on a pitch that slowed was a masterstroke and South Africa, including the in-form Wolvaardt, were unable to get them away. The struggle got ugly as South Africa were bowled out for 107, which also leaves their net run rate massively in the red. Overall, it means their task is firmly uphill.
But South Africa will remember 69 all out against England in the ODI World Cup opener last year and how they came back from that to reach the final. They'll also know the permutations were different then. The 50-over World Cup was played as an eight-team league, where the top four reached the semi-finals. That gave every team a 50% chance of progressing. This World Cup is played in two groups of six, and two teams progress to the knockouts. The probability is only 33%.
With India looming, South Africa face a must-win clash as early as next weekend. Given the massive margin of this defeat, they will still have to hope Australia beat India, which is at the end of the league stage. All those are problems for the next few weeks. For now, they'll simply wonder whether bringing Ismail back was the right call as they look at the immediate results.
