The Proteas’ chances of progressing to the knock-out stages of the Women’s T20 World Cup hang in the balance after their six-wicket loss to Australia at St George’s Park on Saturday evening.
Their future in the tournament, however, is no longer in their hands as they will have to rely on New Zealand beating Sri Lanka on Sunday – and not by a too bigger margin.
Sune Luus’s charges will also have to win their final group game against Bangladesh on Tuesday.
Speaking after the match, Luus reflected on where it went wrong for South Africa after they had made a promising start following being sent into bat with Laura Wolvaardt (19) and Taazmin Brits (45) putting on 54 for the first wicket in nine overs.
“I think we just lost a couple of wickets, one after another, and I think that broke the momentum for us, and we couldn’t really adjust after that and get to that big score that we wanted to,” Luus said.
We'll keep fighting
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— Proteas Women (@ProteasWomenCSA) February 19, 2023
South Africa had Australia in trouble in their turn at the crease, reducing the world champions 40/3 in the seventh over before Ashleigh Gardner (28*) and Tahlia McGrath (57) batted them to victory.
“That’s classic Australia. You have them back against the wall, and then they give a clinical performance,” Luus said.
“It was an awesome start from our bowlers, the first ten overs, [but] I think they just have a couple of world-class players – Tahlia McGrath is number one in the world – and we just lost our lines and lengths a bit in the last 10 overs, but they batted extremely well.”
Speaking of the New Zealand versus Sri Lanka clash taking place on Sunday, which the Proteas needed the Silver Ferns to win, Luus said her side would have an eye on the match, but they needed to remain focused on Bangladesh too.
“We have to have an eye on tomorrow [Sunday’s match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand]. We still have a game to play on Tuesday [against Bangladesh], and we are very focused on that. We will 100% leave everything on that field [and] give it our all, no matter the result tomorrow.”
The Proteas clearly still believe they can make it to the knock-out stages of the tournament, even though their fate isn’t in their own hands anymore.
“Anything can still happen in this tournament,” said Luus.
Tuesday’s match takes place at Newlands in Cape Town at 19:00.
News24
