South Africa’s national women’s cricket team is set to return to action for the first time since the Women’s T20 World Cup final held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month. The Proteas will host the England women’s team for a full-format tour, beginning with a three-match T20 series in East London on Sunday.
Most of the squad that will do duty against the Lionesses was put through paces at Cricket South Africa’s Centre for Excellence.
This will be South Africa’s first assignment since the heartbreak of the T20 World Cup final, where they lost to New Zealand in October.
Faye Tunnicliffe, who is back in the T20 squad after a few years in the wilderness, says England will look to avenge their early exit at the World Cup.
Tunnicliffe says, “Yeah, I think a side like England is going to come back with a vengeance, especially because our team got further in the World Cup so they will probably avenge coming back. They are an incredibly strong side; they play a lot of cricket there in the UK so it’s going to be good competitive cricket.”
With the Women’s 50 over World Cup set for September and October next year, the team management will certainly be targeting the three-match One Day International series as part of their preparations.
One of the leading wickettakers in the UAE, Nonkululeko Mlaba, is looking to build on that success.
Mlaba says, “We are still proud of the team; it wasn’t easy and for us to make it to the final in Dubai, it’s something else for us; it shows the hard work we wanted to bring the trophy home, but unfortunately we couldn’t; hopefully next time we will do; now the main focus is the 50 overs because we have a 50 over World Cup coming up, there will be a test but we are focusing on the ODIs.”
The English will round off their tour with a Test match at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein next month. Senior all-rounder Suné Luus is hoping the Free State heat will play to their advantage. Luus says, “It’s always great to play a test for your country; we don’t get to do it very often; it’s always special to represent your country. In Bloemfontein, it’s going to be hot for those four days. Luckily we have had good preparation going to Perth earlier this year, in Chennai in India, so I think we are ready for the heat and hopefully, we will have an advantage and it’s a disadvantage to the English.”
The first T20 match is a day game at Buffalo Park in East London on Sunday afternoon.
