ICC Women's World Cup qualifier: India, South Africa prepare hard ahead of grand finale

India and South Africa are preparing hard ahead of their title clash in the ICC Women's World Cup qualifying tournament to be played in Colombo.

These two teams were assured of places in this year's Women's World Cup with a round to go in the Super Six stage of the tournament.
Both India and South Africa were a few notches above other sides in the 10-team tournament that not only took the top four outfits to the ICC Women's World Cup but also got them places in the ICC Women's Championship.

Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the other teams to have qualified from this tournament to join Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies, who booked places in the pinnacle event by finishing in the top four in the ICC Women's Championship.

Bangladesh and Ireland retained their ODI status for the next four years by entering the Super Six stage of the tournament.

Both India and South Africa reached the final on a high. While India defeated Pakistan by seven wickets and South Africa beat Ireland by 36 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in a rain-reduced match.

India is the only unbeaten team in the tournament while South Africa's only loss so far has been against Mitahli Raj-led side.

South Africa had defeated India in a practice match ahead of this tournament but the latter prevailed in their fixture in the tournament proper, winning by 49 runs in the Super Six stage.

India defended a total of 205 with ease at the P Sara Stadium, which is also the venue for the final.

India captain Mithali, who heads the list of run-scorers with 207 runs in ODIs in this tournament (matches against teams without ODI status do not classify as ODIs), had led her side's charge with a fluent 64.