The countdown has begun, we now are 13 days away from witnessing the first ever Women’s game of cricket at the Commonwealth Games and what better land than Birmingham for Women’s cricket to be marking its debut. A few nations have announced their squads and yesterday we had Cricket South Africa (CSA) name their strong 15 for the Games that get underway later this month.
South African Women’s team are currently in England playing an all-format series where after drawing the 4-day one-off test and with a defeat in the ODI series (with an ODI to go), the focus will now shift to T20I cricket and the Proteas women will want a win or two in the shortest format to carry a little momentum heading into the Commonwealth Games.
SOUTH AFRICA’S SQUAD FOR THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES :
Sune Luus (C), Chloe Tryon, Anneke Bosch, Trisha Chetty, Nadine de Klerk, Mignon du Preez, Lara Goodall, Shabnim Ismail, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Masabata Klaas, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Tumi Sekhukhune, Laura Wolvaardt.
With regular skipper Dane van Niekerk continuing to remain on the road to recovery from an ankle fracture she suffered early this year it’ll be Sune Luus leading South Africa in her absence even at the Games. After missing out on her World Cup campaign, this now is another big sporting event that Dane van Niekerk will agonizingly be missing out on. To add to the list, there’s Lizelle Lee as well who’s been South Africa’s saviour with the bat in hand on several occasions, but now having retired from all forms of international cricket South Africa has got a big hole to fill. For some positive news, it’s that of Mignon du Preez who’d announced her retirement from the Test and One-day format will be back on the field and she’ll be a part of the South African XI in the T20I format. South Africa in their ongoing series against England have struggled to convert and accelerate their starts, they’ve got a quick fix to do and find a way of their batting lows.
With South Africa and major cricketing events, we’ve often seen a trend of them being there and there about and in the end falling just short, that does sum up South Africa’s world stage appearances very often than not so, that’s something they’ll want to put aside, but more importantly, it’s a little more to add this time as they’ve not got any sort of momentum yet and there’s still time to find some. Bowling, in particular, has been South Africa’s strength, their bowlers fight it out for the side, but what we’ve seen in the ongoing England-South Africa series so far is that many individuals in the Test match couldn’t find their control, it also wasn’t their best attack and also with many playing their 1st red-ball game it’s understandable, but not to forget they’ve continued to look very much off colour even during the 1st couple ODI’s with their best individuals failing to bowl with control so, that’s again a crucial area where work has to be put in.
Overall, it’s a lot for South Africa to correct and their T20I outings on July 21, 23, and 25 against England before heading to Birmingham do present them with a golden opportunity to work their way out. South Africa for the Games are placed in group B alongside New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka against whom they’ll be contesting on the 30th of July, 2nd of August and 4th of August respectively.
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