The focus will certainly be on the likes of fivetime champions Australia, England, India and New Zealand — the relatively consistent sides in women’s cricket. But South Africa are also keen to make an impression as they host Sri Lanka in the opening game of the Women’s T20 World Cup at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday.
In terms of quality, the South African women’s team may not really be on par with the best, but they can certainly take heart from their recent performances leading up to the T20 World Cup.
It wasn’t too many days ago when the South Africans emerged champions of the tri-series at home, where India and the West Indies were the other participating teams. They couldn’t quite challenge a stronger Indian team in the group phase of that competition but in the final, South Africa kept India’s superior batting side on a leash and allowed them to get only 109/4.
Thereafter, in spite of pressure early on, they rode Chloe Tryon’s half-century to beat India by two overs to spare and win the title. Captain Sune Luus and her teammates couldn’t have asked for better preparation in the build-up to the World Cup.
Besides, they will have the comfort of playing at home which they look to make optimum use of.
“I don’t think we quite realise what we already achieved without playing the game,” skipper Luus said, talking about the significance of South African women cricketers playing a World Cup at home.
“I think it’s going to be awesome tomorrow (Friday) just seeing everyone coming out. Apart from the cricketing things and apart from being successful and winning games, I think there’s a responsibility of inspiring a nation as well and inspiring young girls to get out of their comfort zones and imagine a career in which they can do anything.
“I think that’s one of our biggest roles as a team... Not just winning games, but also inspiring a nation to give them that opportunity to know that they can be anything they want,” she emphasised.
Today’s match
Group A: SA Women vs SL Women, Cape Town 10.30pm IST, live on Star Sports Network
