The Proteas women will be looking to take it one game at a time as they target a successful tour of India over the coming month, which they will be using to build up to the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in October. The team touched down in India on Wednesday and get straight down to business with a 50-over warm up against an Indian Board President’s XI to kick off their multi-format tour on Thursday.
The three-match WODI series then gets under way on Sunday, with all the games being played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, and the final match will be battled out next week Sunday. The Proteas and India then duke it out in a one-off test at the A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai from Friday, 29 June to Monday, 1 July.
The visitors end off their sub-continent tour with a three-match T20 series, also fully held in Chennai, with the first game on Friday, 5 July and last on Tuesday, 9 July. Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt, who recently featured for the Gujarat Giants in the Women’s IPL in India, believes the tour is the perfect build-up for them ahead of the World Cup, and will be the perfect experience for many of the youngsters in the squad.
“For us, this is the perfect tour leading up to the World Cup in Bangladesh. I think spending as much time as we can in the sub-continent is only going to do well for us,” explained Wolvaardt. I think our youngsters who haven’t been there, it will be quite an experience for them, especially Bangalore (Bengaluru), having just had the WPL final there, and RCB winning it.
“I think there will be quite a lot of hype around women’s cricket, and probably a decent crowd in some of the games. It will be an awesome experience just to get used to the noise, and I think that will be perfect preparation.
It has been a tough past 10 months for the Proteas women, with them struggling in their last four series, two of which were played away. In September last year on their tour of Pakistan they were whitewashed 3-0 in the T20 series, before bouncing back to win the WODI series 2-1.
Back at home in December against Bangladesh they drew the T20 series 1-1 after a second-game washout and won the WODI series 2-1.
Next the Proteas women headed Down Under for a multi-format tour of Australia in January and February, where they lost both the T20 and WODI series 2-1, and were hammered by an innings and 284 runs in under three days in the one-off test.
Back on home soil in March they would have been hoping for a strong response in their series against Sri Lanka, but were instead upset 2-1 in the T20 series and drew the WODI series 1-1, after a washout in the first game, which would have been bitterly disappointing for the team.
So going into the India series the Proteas will be aiming to put in a much better effort than they have recently to try and get some form back ahead of the World Cup. Looking at the tour as a whole Wolvaardt admitted that they will be aiming to break it down into parts and focus on each as it comes to try and get the most out of the experience.
“We’ll look to break (the tour) down quite a bit. The test match has a lot of points up for grabs for the multi-formats, so winning that gives you a huge edge within the whole series,” said Wolvaardt.
“Going into India, I’ve never played a test match, and I don’t think anyone in the group has played a test match there before, so it will be a huge challenge for us. With the ODIs there are World Cup points up for grabs, so winning that series is what we are looking to do.
“And it’s the same with the T20s, with the World Cup just around the corner. I think that’s the main focus, to play our best T20 XI, and get as many wins as we can. Each format has its importance. A multi-format win would be awesome, especially with the tour being away.”
It is all set to be an exciting tour for the Proteas, who are also looking to blood some up-and-coming talent, with four players in the squad uncapped in tests and two uncapped in ODIs, making it a valuable experience for them.
SQUAD: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Mieke de Ridder, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka (ODI only), Masabata Klaas, Suné Luus, Eliz-Mari Marx, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Tumi Sekhukhune, Nondumiso Shangase, Delmi Tucker
Source: eNCA
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