Women's Cricket World Cup: All you need to know

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Image caption,

England's women celebrate their victory over South Africa

England are through to the final of the Women's Cricket World Cup after beating South Africa by just two wickets at the match in Bristol.

England are just one match away from lifting the cup - so here's everything you need to know before the big day.

When is the final?

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England will play either India or Australia on Sunday.

The match will be held at Lord's, which is a famous cricket ground in London. Tickets have sold out, with 26,500 fans expected to attend.

Which players should I look out for?

Heather Knight

Image source, Reuters

She's England's captain and a ferocious batsman. Heather was also part of the world record-breaking team that played the highest ever game of cricket on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Anya Shrubsole

Anya is England's vice-captain and is a strong bowler - but her batting also came in pretty useful at the semi-finals. She made the winning runs against South Africa to edge England into the final.

Sarah Taylor

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For wicketkeeper Sarah, just making it to the tournament was a big deal. She's been suffering from anxiety over the past year. She had a great semi-final against South Africa, notably speedily stumping their batsman Trisha Chetty.

What are the rules?

Take a big breath - because there are loads!

In a nutshell, there are 11 players in a cricket team. One team bats, the other bowls and fields. Then they swap over.

A player called a bowler carries the ball towards two sets of wooden sticks called stumps, which are 22 yards (20 metres) apart at either end of a piece of ground called the wicket.

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The bowler's job is to then throw the ball, aiming it one set of stumps, hoping it will hit them and knock tiny pieces of wood, called bails, off the top of them.

A player from the opposing team - called a batsman - stands to one side of the stumps the bowler is aiming at, waiting for them to throw the ball.

The batsman tries to stop the ball hitting the stumps, using a piece of wood called a bat.

How do you get people out?

There are a few ways of getting out, which can get complicated!

The fielding team could hit the stumps with the ball while you are batting, or they could catch the ball you have hit.

There's also the LBW (leg-before-wicket). The batsman is not allowed to use their legs to stop the ball hitting the wicket. If they do, and the umpire (cricket referee) thinks the ball would have hit the stumps, the player is out LBW.

What do the other players do?

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The 10 members of the fielding team who are not bowling stand around the field and try to stop the batting team scoring runs.

Batsman bat in pairs, so one stands at the stumps the bowler is bowling at, and the other stands at the opposite end.

When a batsman is out one of his teammates replaces him, until 10 players are out and only one is left, at this point the team is 'all out'.

Since the last player is not allowed to bat on their own, the batting team have to stop and the teams swap.

Then what?

Bowlers bowl the ball in sets of six, called overs. Batsman stay in and try to score runs until they are got out by the fielding team.

The batting team's turn to score runs is called an 'innings'. In a game, each team has the same number of innings, and the team with the most runs, wins.