Tactics board: Kapp vs Knight and Sciver-Brunt and SA vs spin

Four-time champions England and now four-time semi-finalists South Africa are set to clash in a Women's ODI World Cup semi-final for the third straight time. If 2017 was nothing less than heartbreak for South Africa, when they nearly defended 218 with two wickets left for England, 2022 was a lot more one-sided when South Africa managed only 156 in their chase of 294.

Wednesday may or may not see a different result, but it will be chock full of cool match-ups. Here are some of them:

Marizanne Kapp is the most experienced bowler in her side but is yet to put out her best show this World Cup. She will be banking on the experience of having played 21 matches against England for 29 wickets, her best against any team, including her only ODI five-for.

Kapp usually takes the new ball for South Africa, which is just as well because she has dismissed opener Tammy Beaumont five times (for 146 runs), one of which was during the 2022 semi-final for a score of just 7. Beaumont, however, has four ODI centuries against the South Africans, the most by anyone against them.

Crucially, Kapp has a stellar record against England's two best batters at this tournament - 5 for 100 against Heather Knight and 3 for 35 against Nat Sciver-Brunt.

Seven. It's a number that will be ringing in South Africa's ears after seven of them fell to Alana King in their last game.

Seven is also the wickets they lost to spin in their first match of this World Cup. England and Guwahati have come calling again, this time in a semi-final.

Even if it's not a skills thing, which is what captain Laura Wolvaardt said on Tuesday, it could still play in the mind if wickets start to fall to the slow bowlers again, or even if the runs start drying up.

Left-arm spinners, in particular, have been a problem. South Africa have the lowest balls-per-wicket ratio (20.20) against them at this World Cup. England's is 33.70 (second-best).

South Africa have given away 15 wickets (third-most) to left-arm spin at an average of 16.40 (third-worst) and England have two of them in Linsey Smith and Sophie Ecclestone, who is expected to recover from her injury and play on Wednesday.

Wolvaardt, South Africa's top-run-scorer in the competition, doesn't score too quickly against Ecclestone (47 runs off 108 balls) and has also lost her wicket twice. Should she survive that match-up though, there is every chance she could go big. Wolvaardt is the only South African batter to have scored over 500 ODI runs against England.

Conditions in Guwahati will also test South Africa in another way. A slow pitch is likely to be used for the semi-final, the kind that isn't conducive to hitting a lot of boundaries. Wolvaardt's team has found 57.1% of their runs through fours and sixes at this World Cup. They've got here playing one way. Will they stick to it, even when conditions demand something different, even when everything is on the line?

Irrespective of the surface and the occasion, both teams would want to collect quick runs at some point. South Africa will rely on their lower-order star Nadine de Klerk to belt out those big hits. And she in turn might eye Charlie Dean to pull it off. Their head-to-head reads 35 runs in 24 balls at a strike at 145.83, but with no sixes yet. Annerie Dercksen and Chloe Tryon have also struck at over-a-run-a-ball against Dean: 33 off 30 and 59 off 58 respectively. Tryon is also the only one from South Africa's top seven to have struck Dean for two sixes.

For England, Amy Jones, with two half-centuries in her last three outings, could be the one to push the pedal. She has a strike rate of 134.61 against de Klerk (35 off 26 balls) and 153.81 against Nonkululeko Mlaba (20 off 13), South Africa's best bowler this tournament, without being dismissed by either of them.

Some of the unmatchable strike rates for a match-up between these two teams belong to Danni Wyatt-Hodge. She has 39 off 19 (205.26) while facing de Klerk for one dismissal and 17 off 9 (188.88) against Mlaba for no dismissals.