Cape Town - The Women’s T20 World Cup starts with what is expected to be a cracker of a match between hosts South Africa and Sri Lanka at Newlands, Cape Town, on Friday.
The Proteas Women’s side may not be considered worthy of a world champions title yet – that tag belongs to Australia, England, India and a couple of others – but playing at home should certainly boost the confidence of Hilton Mooreng and his troops.
The Australians have undergone significant changes to their squad, but remain the team to beat in the Women’s T20 World Cup.
Meg Lanning’s team slipped to a surprise loss to Ireland in a warm-up game on Wednesday, but prior to that they had lost just once in 27 T20 internationals since March 2021. So, seemingly the Aussies can be vulnerable.
The South Africans, on the other hand, have had their share of distractions, including the dropping of Dane van Niekerk, which did not sit well with many.
Van Niekerk failed to make the fitness grade set by Cricket SA. Women’s cricket reached a high point in Australia in 2020 that is unlikely to be challenged in terms of crowd attendances in South Africa, where tickets for all matches remain available.
The World Cup will also battle for a television audience as it coincides with the closing stages of the hugely popular men’s SA20 franchise competition.
The SA20 final on Saturday will clash with a double-header in Paarl, where England meet West Indies before the Australia-New Zealand match.
The 10 teams in the T20 World Cup are split into two sections of five teams, with the top two in each section qualifying for the semi-finals.
Hosts South Africa will have to be at their best to get beyond Group A, where they will almost certainly have to beat Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well as either Australia or New Zealand to progress.
No doubt, the Proteas will need all the support they can muster at home to progress to the semi-finals. It is now the 12th man – the South African public – that must be an additional fielder in Suné Luus’s team.
When the Newlands ground is packed to the rafters, the visiting teams will know whose turf they have entered and the women will feed off that energy and make us proud on the field.
Cape Times