‘It’s actually quite insane’ for Proteas Women
THIS has the potential to turn into something special for the Proteas. Something really special. All the years of being passengers on their own journey, this group of women has taken hold of the wheel and driven themselves all the way to the ICC World Cup semi-finals with a round-robin game to spare.
“It’s all a bit surreal. The girls have worked really hard on trying to achieve this. It’s actually quite insane,” Proteas captain Dane van Niekerk said from Taunton yesterday.
“No goal is achieved yet, though. We’re here to win a World Cup and we’ve still got one match left against Australia and then the semis, so (there’s) still lots of work ahead.”
SA’s qualification was secured after they had trounced Sri Lanka earlier yesterday, and then watched Australia beat India and New Zealand fall short against England.
From the first ball to the last ball of their game the Proteas were ahead of Sri Lanka. They duly won by eight wickets after comfortably passing Sri Lanka’s disappointing 101 with 161 balls to spare.
Van Niekerk claimed 4/24 – her third four-wicket haul – to push her overall tally to 13 wickets, the most in the tournament.
SA have only ever reached the semi-finals once, in five previous attempts. That was in 2000 in Australia under the leadership of Daleen Terblanche.
Terblanche was a renowned fighter, but the current Proteas skipper is arguably superior not only in her leadership abilities but also in skills.
Offering scant regard for a venue renowned for favouring the batters, Van Niekerk and her bowling unit ran through a Sri Lankan batting line-up that simply never got going once their ace opener Chamari Atapattu fell to Marizanne Kapp’s first ball.
Van Niekerk continually harps on about how she’s not happy with her delivery of the ball, but it certainly is working for the skipper at the moment. Not a significant turner of the ball like her fellow leg-spinner Sune Luus, Van Niekerk is instead quicker through the air which deceives the batters.
Three of her dismissals yesterday were due to Sri Lanka’s batters attempting the sweep shot; they all got top-edges to be caught on the legside.
“Yeah, look, my bowling and batting, both are working, so I’m not going to complain. Our team’s been performing really well. Every game has been a team effort. My opening bowlers are setting up our games. That I’m here, is because of them and the individual performance the others have been putting up,” Van Niekerk said.
“Coming into the World Cup I hadn’t bowled as much as I (should have). I was a bit weary. I wasn’t sure how it was going to come out.
“At the moment though it’s going really well and I’ll take it. Hopefully I can contribute to the team in the next few games.”
Yesterday the Proteas seamers once again ably performed their duties with Shabnim Ismail striking at the start and end of the innings to finish with 3/14, while Kapp, of course, claimed the big wicket of Atapattu.
There were also wickets for Masabata Klaas, who came into the side for the first time for left-armer Moseline Daniels, and Luus.
The batting unit also showed it is not dependent on powerhouse opener Lizelle Lee to haul in totals, after the right-hander suffered her first failure of the tournament.
Even the loss of the experienced Trisha Chetty could not derail the run-chase, with Laura Wolvaardt (48 not out) and Mignon du Preez (38 not out) combining elegantly for an unbroken 78-run partnership to take the side home and book the Proteas’ semi-final spot.