South Africa v Ireland

South Africa won by 7 wickets
Ireland 107 all out (47.4 overs, C Joyce 43*, Loubser 2-12, Smith 2-29)
South Africa 108-3 (27.4 overs, Anderson 46*, Isobel Joyce 2-21)

South Africa sealed a place at the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2009 with a 7 wicket win over Ireland after a match winning innings from Olivia Anderson.

A delighted captain, Cri-Zelda Brits, hailed her side after booking a ticket for next year’s global event in Australia.

“We’re really relieved and very happy to have pulled it off” said Brits. “The team haven’t let me down since I’ve taken over the captaincy and we’ve stuck at it and come to the party at this event with the bowling.”

An inspired bowling performance from the hosts reduced Ireland to 107 all out, with only Cecilia Joyce putting up any kind of resistance as she carried her bat for 43* with the wickets shared amongst South Africa’s excellent bowling attack.

Spinner Sunette Loubser, who took six wickets against Bermuda on the opening day of the event, was once again outstanding taking 2-12 in her 10 overs, while Alicia Smith also chipped in with two wickets.

And South Africa never really looked like they were going to have any problems reaching their target as an unbeaten 46 from Olivia Anderson, who won her second Player of the Match Award this week, helped her side to their target with 22.4 overs to spare.

Brits paid tribute to Anderson, who only made her debut for her country during this tournament.

“I’m very happy for Olivia. She has showed tremendous guts during this week and if we have fourteen other players like that then I’m ready for the World Cup!”

In contrast, the Irish team, who came into this week as one of the favourites to qualify for Australia, was left distraught by the defeat.

Irish captain Heather Whelan said: “I think everybody is absolutely gutted. We trained so hard for so long for this in order to try to go to the World Cup in Australia but it’s not going to be.

“We’re not going to the World Cup but we will battle on and we’ll be here again in four years looking for a place in the World Cup and we expect to make it next time.”

Pakistan v Netherlands

Pakistan won by 98 runs
Pakistan 162 all out (45.5 overs, Bismal Maroof 45, Taskeen Qadeer 27, Egging 3-23)
Netherlands 68 all out (31.2 overs, Annemarie Tanke 41, Sajida Shah 3-14)

Pakistan sealed their place at the ICC Women’s World Cup with a crushing 94-run defeat over the Netherlands.

And skipper Urooj Mumtaz was absolutely delighted to lead her Pakistani side to qualification for Australia next year.

“It’s an absolutely awesome feeling. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels. That was the task we came here to do and I think we pulled off a great win. We are very excited to be going to the World Cup. Every single girl did their job on and off the field. In fielding, batting and bowling, everybody did their task – it was an absolutely brilliant performance.”

After winning the toss and batting, openers Bismal Maroof and Taskeen Qadeer gave Pakistan an excellent start as they added 79 for the opening wicket.

But the Netherlands always stuck to their task and once Caroline De Fouw had broken the opening stand, they took wickets at regular intervals as Pakistan’s batters struggled to establish themselves at the crease.

And a late rush of wickets, which saw Pakistan collapse from 140-5 to 162 all out, including a Lotte Egging hat-trick to finish the innings, which earned her the Player of the Match Award, left Urooj Mumtaz’s side disappointed with their final total.

In reply, once the Netherlands had lost both openers, Violet Wattenberg and Helmien Rambaldo for ducks, they were also going to struggle and despite the brave efforts of Annemarie Tanke (41) they always looked like falling well short of their target.

Sajida Shah once again did the damage with the ball, taking 3-14, although Sana Mir also contributed with two wickets.

Despite another heavy defeat, the captain of the Netherlands was proud of her team’s performance.

“We’re a bit disappointed. We would have loved to have won this game so we could have got a ticket to the World Cup but Pakistan played really well” said Netherlands skipper Helmien Rambaldo.

Scotland v Papua New Guinea

Scotland won by 4 wickets
PNG 117 all out (47 overs, Heagi 21, Anderson 2-11)
Scotland 118-6 (36.4 overs, Anderson 45, Pedgrift 33*)

Stand-in skipper Kari Anderson put in an outstanding individual display to help Scotland to a 4 wicket win over PNG.

She scored 45 and took 2-11 as Scotland successfully chased down a victory target of 118 against a PNG side which was missing inspirational captain Kune Amini.

Scotland put in their best bowling performance of the competition to bowl out PNG for just 117, with the wickets shared around their attack.

And although they were in trouble at 47-5 in reply, Diane Pedgrift made an excellent 33* to guide her side home.

Bermuda v Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe won by 125 runs Zimbabwe 237-5 (50 overs, Nyathi 54) Bermuda 112 all out (49.5 overs, Rainsford 2-7)

Zimbabwe handed out another heavy defeat to Bermuda as they recorded a 125 run defeat in the rankings play-off semi-final for 5th-8th positions.

Batting first, 54 from Nonthlanthla Nyathi helped Zimbabwe to 237-5, with Chipo Mugeri scoring 38.

In reply, Bermuda lost regular wickets to a well balanced Zimbabwe attack, with seven of the eight bowlers used claiming at least one victim.