Proteas must ‘believe in themselves’

South African women’s cricket team captain Dane van Niekerk (right) said yesterday despite the series whitewash over Bangladesh the team still needed to grow in confidence and believe in themselves.

Van Niekerk was reacting to the team taking the ODI series 5-0 and then the T20 internationals 3-0, giving them an 8-0 scoreline.

“That’s the way we want to play cricket and that’s the way we want to win series. We haven’t done that before, and if we can make that a habit, winning is a habit, then we can go very far and be very successful,” said the captain.

“It’s a very important year for us. We are taking on England and then we have the T20 World Cup, so as a team we need to grow in confidence and we need to believe in ourselves.

“We have world-class players. We just have to start believing and show it against the top three in the world.”

“I’m a very proud captain at the moment,” said Aan Niekerk after the Proteas won the rain-hit, nine-overs-a-side final T20 by 23 runs in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

Three rookies, Zintle Mali, Stacey Lackay and Tazmin Brits have been included in the squad for the tour to England following impressive contributions against Bangladesh. The tour takes place from June 3 to July 1 and features three ODIs and a T20 triangular including New Zealand. – ANA