Captain Meg Lanning struck a century from 92 balls as Australia beat South Africa by five wickets on Tuesday. Meanwhile, with this win, Australia Women are now the only team to remain undefeated at the Women's Cricket World Cup. The Aussies have won all the six games they have played so far in the tournament.
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Chasing a challenging score of 272, Australia did not get to the best of their as they lost their opening batter Alyssa Healy (5 runs off 6 balls) in the third over. Healy's opening partner, Rachael Haynes, who has been the in-form batter of Australia made her way back to the pavilion in the 11th over. Meanwhile, then Australia was struggling at 2-45.
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Later, captain Meg Lanning and Beth Mooney came together to stitch a 60 run partnership for the third wicket. When it was just starting to look good for Australia, South Africa came back strong with an unbelievable run out to send back Mooney (21 runs off 23 balls).
However, Lanning did not stop fighting. She partnered with Tahlia McGrath (32 runs off 35 balls) to put together 93 runs and then with Ashleigh Gardner (22 runs off 26 balls) to take Australia to a commanding position. In the end, Annabel Sutherland (22 not out off 23 balls) played her part to see her team home.
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Lanning, who missed out on scoring a century in the last game against India when she was out on 97, made the most of the opportunity in hand against South Africa as she plundered a blistering 135 not out off 130 balls. Australia completed the formalities in 45.2 overs to win the match by five wickets.
For South Africa, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon were the only wicket-takers. Ismail picked up 2/33 in her seven overs, including one maiden, while Tryon accounted for 2/44 in her eight overs. However, the other bowlers went wicketless including Ayabonga Khaka.
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Australia's Meg Lanning won the player of the match award for her match-winning batting performance.