Australia will face a rising South African women’s team in the T20 World Cup cricket final

World dominance is driving Australia’s pursuit of a sixth World T20 title as they prepare to face the finalists for the first time in Cape Town, South Africa on Sunday.

That’s the view of Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, man of the match in India’s five-run semi-final win on Thursday.

“Obviously when you come to the World Cup you want to be World Cup champions,” said Gardner after an 18-ball 31 and 2-37.

– So we want to be world champions. We want to win it all. I think every team wants to do that, but we definitely don’t want to leave here without a medal.

‘I hate losing. I think everyone hates to lose. So I feel like that’s probably one of the things that people always think about.

“But it’s just that as a team we can always say we want to keep improving. And ultimately, if we improve as athletes and as individuals, we get better.

Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner delivers the ball during the Women’s T20 World Cup quarter-final between Australia and India.

Australia’s Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning and Ashleigh Gardner celebrate reaching the World Cup final

South Africa fast bowler Shabnim Ismail said the hosts will look to use their familiarity with the Australians in the WBBL to pull off an upset.

“We know exactly what to expect against an Australian team, which is a world-class team,” Ismail said on Friday as South Africa, who have not lost a game since losing to Sri Lanka in their tournament opener, beat England by six. runs in the other semi-final at Newlands.

The 34-year-old, who is a regular in Australia’s domestic T20 competition with many of his South African teammates, added: “They have a batting line-up of basically one to maybe eight to nine and we’re talking about obviously getting into the tail.’

South Africa’s Shabnim Ismail celebrates scoring Sophia Dunkley’s goal during England’s win

Australia have never lost to South Africa in any World Cup with eight matches in the ODI format and six in the T20I equivalent.

In the group stages of the eighth edition of the ongoing 20-over showpiece, Tahlia McGrath’s 33-ball 57 overtook Tazmin Brits’ 36-ball 45 to beat Australia by six wickets in Gqeberha.

Ismail believes increasing the pressure against a “quiet” Australia will be key to South Africa’s chances of winning the country’s first ever men’s and women’s World Cups.

“To be honest, I don’t really think there was a huge amount of pressure on Australia throughout this World Cup and other World Cups as well,” Ismail said.

“So, just to be able to go out there and put pressure on the first five to six batters. And we know that on the back end we can defend anything.

“We know we have a strong bowling unit and just the batsmen coming out and playing some gutsy cricket will get us over the line.”

Ellyse Perry celebrates with Tahlia McGrath after catching the dismissal of India’s Radha Yadav

The final will use the same surface on which the full 80 overs were bowled in the two semi-finals.

The two knocks produced 661 runs for the loss of 24 wickets, 14 of which went to the pacer and eight to the spinners.

In both the games, chasing teams India and England lost the toss and eventually lost.

Most of the players in the four semi-finalists rated the pitch as “good”, with South African quick Marizanne Kapp describing it as “even”.

Gardner said they were hoping to get 170-180.

– I think it must be defended, especially in the World Cup final.

“Obviously it’s high pressure, but yeah… if you bowl well enough, you can definitely defend it.”

No rain is forecast for Sunday, but in the unlikely event of a washout, the backup day will come into play.