Australian captain Meg Lanning will miss Saturday's clash with South Africa to rest her persistent right shoulder injury ahead of next week's finals.
The 25-year-old has battled the chronic shoulder problem all tournament, and hasn't been training with the side which will aim to secure either first or second spot with a win over the Proteas.
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She scored an unbeaten 76 in Wednesday's win over India, but coaching staff have decided to rest the superstar for the second time this tournament, given her team has already secured its spot in the semi-finals.
Rachael Haynes will captain the side in Lanning's absence, like she did against Pakistan earlier in the competition.
South Africa are chasing their first ever women's triumph over Australia when the teams clash in Taunton on Saturday in what could prove a preview of the World Cup's second semi-final.
South Africa are winless across 13 ODIs and four T20s against the Australians, but will fancy Saturday's match as an excellent opportunity to make history after notching four wins already at this tournament, where they sit third in the standings.
Still fresh in their mind is a tie against the reigning world champions last November in Coffs Harbour, where Beth Mooney affected a run out on the final ball of the South African innings.
"Two or three games out of that series were really close, that just showed us that we did close the gap and in a tournament like this, anything can happen," South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk said.
![Rested: Australian captain Meg Lanning will miss Saturday's clash against South Africa due to her shoulder injury.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170719080025im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/a/9/m/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxbrf4.png/1500088067729.jpg)
"We all know that they're the defending champions and they're a world-class outfit and at the moment they're the No.1 team in the world. There's obviously a bit of nerves going around even though we all know that both of our teams are in the semis.
"We still want to go out there and win the game. We know that we're going to have to be at our best and try and better our performance to give the Aussies a go."
Both teams are on track to finish second and third, which would mean playing a semi-final in Derby on July 20.
However, the make-up of the final four could still shift significantly on a frantic final day of pool games.
England will likely finish top if they beat the West Indies as expected, although the game looms as a potential banana skin for the home side against the carefree Caribbean outfit which has nothing to lose after already failing to qualify for the semi-finals.
A loss by England would mean the winner of the Australia and South Africa match would finish top.
New Zealand are also expected to take care of India and haul themselves into fourth, but an Indian win would create further possibilities.
"We spoke about it, we obviously don't want to get too ahead of ourselves but I feel like we are [peaking]," van Niekerk said.
"Everything that we have been working on and working really hard on throughout the season and the years leading up to the World Cup, it's starting to click. Hopefully the next few games it can only get better.
"They've got a very long batting order, it's quality batters. Midge [Alyssa Healy] bats at seven. It's a tall order.
"We really have to get our plans right. We were doing it really well against other teams in the tournament but we have to see where we're at against Aussies in that regard."
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