Captain Meg Lanning’s ton guides Australia to five-wicket victory over SA

Skipper Meg Lanning produced another masterclass smashing an unbeaten 135 as sixtime champions Australia continued their invincible run with a fivewicket thrashing of South Africa in the ICC Womenrsquos World Cup here on TuesdayLanning scored her 15th ODI century with 15 hits to the fence and one maximum during her 130ball unconquered innings to help Australia successfully chase down South Africarsquos total of 271 for 5 with 28 balls to spareInvited to bat opener Laura Wolvaardt cracked a 134ball 90 while skipper Sune Luus 52 notched another halfcentury as South Africa posted a decent total However it proved inadequate in the end as Lanning took control of chaseRace to semis Three berths four teamsWith Australia already qualified four teamsmdashIndia South Africa England and West Indiesmdashare in contention for the remaining three semis spots Herersquos a look at how they are placed India The big win against Bangladesh has propelled Indiarsquos net runrate 0768 and is the best among all teams in contention A win against South Africa who have lost just one match will help India seal the semis berth South Africa beating West Indies on Thursday can also benefit India in making it to the top four thanks to better NRR However if SA lose to WI and manage to beat India then Mithali Raj amp Co will be in a spot of bother as England SA and WI could end up with more points than India South Africa The Proteas have more or less qualified after West Indies beat Pakistan The only possibility where South Africa can be knocked out is if they lose by huge margins to West Indies and India West Indies Their qualifying fate depends on beating South Africa who then defeat India WIrsquos poor NRR 0885 will make it difficult for them to qualify with just six points England Wins in their next two games against Bangladesh and Pakistan should seal their semis spot Considering one of the two teams pull off a stunning win against England the defending champions could still make the cut on the basis of better NRR 0327 In that case England will hope SA beat WIThis 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