England v South Africa: Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final – live

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Anthems: Heather Knight has her game face on. Marizanne Kapp is too overwhelmed to sing (unless she usually hangs her head, lips together).

An early email – do keep them coming – hello Duncan Bonnett!

“Getting very excited about this match, which is England’s to lose, in all fairness, but I’m hoping the Proteas can tighten up the fielding, restrict England with some good, tight bowling (which has been their strong suit recently) and keep their heads whilst batting. Tall order? Yip! Can it be done? Yip! Have I got the yips? Yip!”

Really hope it is a tight one. But as you say, and as India proved yesterday, the underdogs can’t afford to lose concentration for even a moment in the field.

Natalie Germanos is somewhat surprised that South Africa have chosen to bat, thinks it is playing into the hands of England’s powerful batting line up. But says they are relying on their excellent bowling attack to do the business. Time for a quick cup of tea before it all starts in ten minutes. While you’re waiting – some Bazball:

Teams: South Africa

South Africa XI: : Laura Wolvaardt, Tazmin Brits, Marizanne Kapp, Sune Luus (c), Chloe Tyron, Anneke Bosch, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Miasba.

South Africa are unchanged from their last match, a ten-wicket win against Bangladesh.

Teams: England

England XI: Danni Wyatt, Sophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight (c), Amy Jones (wk), Sophie Ecclestone, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Sarah Glenn, Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell

Just the one change: Lauren Bell is back after being rested against Pakistan, and Freya Davies returns to the bench.

South Africa win the toss and will bat!

A smiling Sune Luus win the toss on a used pitch. Heather Knight says she would have batted too.

Hypocaust has been trawling through the stats:

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Preamble

Hello! It’s semi-final time again, and battle royale to see who will meet those unstoppable Aussies in the final at Newlands on Sunday.

If you were staking your house on today’s game between England and South Africa, you’d stick your tatty betting slip in the red and blue corner. England have been in dominant form, unbeaten for ten games, and fresh from a record-breaking thrashing of Pakistan in their final group game.

Not all England’s players have fully flouished, but big money WPL buy Nat Sciver-Brunt is in the form of her life, winner of the player of the match award against Pakistan and with two half centuries under her belt. Sophie Ecclestone and her spin sisters continue to gobble wickets like peanuts.

History isn’t on South Africa’s side either: they’ve won just three of the 23 T20 games against England. They reached the semi-final with just two wins from the group games (and a superior NRR), but fought back after the crushing loss of the tournament opener against Sri Lanka. Their best weapon is perhaps the Newlands crowd, which is expected to be large and vocal .

Waiting for today’s winner is Australia, who yesterday snatched a knuckle-gnawer against India. Harmanpreet Kaur did her best to carry India past Australia’s imposing total, but India had made things hard with their butter-fingered fielding performance. So Australia progress to yet another T20 final. Raf was there – read her report here.

Play starts today at 1pm GMT, see you for the toss.