Kapp keen for Proteas to improve
IN all of South Africa Women’s World Cup cricket history dating back 25 years and six tournaments they have only previously qualified for the semi-finals twice.
Yesterday in the pelting rain of the New Zealand capital, a third and second successive semi-final place was secured after a washout against the West Indies.
The morning Wellington rain forced the match to be reduced to 26 overs initially, but the players only managed to get on to the soggy Basin Reserve turf for 10.5 overs.
This was, though, enough for the West Indies to expose SA’s fragile top order once more by reducing the Proteas to 22/4 in 5.3 overs before the under pressure Mignon du Preez staged a mini-recovery with an unbeaten 38 when the game was called off.
SA had progressed to 61/4 and it would have been interesting to watch the Proteas’ bowling attack go about their business in such helpful conditions later on.
There energies are now best kept in reserve as SA can start focusing fully on their semi-final without the extra pressure of having to beat India in their final round-robin game on Sunday.
The Proteas’ knockout opponents have yet to be decided, with India, West Indies and England still vying for the remaining two spots. Unbeaten table-toppers Australia are already through.
SA all-rounder Marizanne Kapp is, however, not paying too much attention to anything outside of their control, and instead wants the team to focus on improving their own performance.
“We’re just happy to have qualified. We shift our focus to our game against India. We still have a few things we would like to work on, and it doesn’t matter who we come up against in the semis,” Kapp said.
“We still have to focus on our game against India because we want to finish the group stages well and then we’ll shift our focus to the semi-final. I feel like this time around, we will be better prepared.”
SA are playing musical chairs with the crucial No 3 position after Tazmin Brits returned to the line-up at the expense of Lara Goodall. It did not yield a change of fortune with Brits failing yet again.
This weak link in the batting line-up is a major issue ahead of the semi-finals and it seems SA are lost for answers.
Kapp admitted that they have “struggled a bit” at first drop and that “we’ve tried our best to try and conquer that and get the best solution”.
But she preferred to focus on the positive of Du Preez returning to some sort of form after having a heart-to-heart with the veteran batter.
Du Preez, who played her 150th one-day international during the World Cup, rediscovered her fluency against the West Indies by striking six crisp boundaries after benefiting from a let-off the first ball she faced.
“I’ve been playing with Mignon for a very long time, I know she’s been struggling and I’ve been trying to support her in every way I can,” Kapp said.
“I just told her, look, being a bowler, I know the wicket is probably going to be spicy and move around a bit, and I saw there was extra bounce, so I just told her to not play at the pace of the ball. If they’re bowling in good areas, leave them, wait for them to bowl at the wickets, at you, because that takes the slips and the catching points out of the game. We’ll wait for them to come to us, and as soon as we started doing that, you saw she score freely
“I almost feel a bit better after today because we have someone like Minx (du Preez) being out there in the middle today; she looked a million dollars, so I’m really excited to see her play moving forward.
“I felt like it was just one knock away for her and I believe she’ll come good now as we move forward.”