Harmanpreet Kaur and Laura Wolvaardt.
Image: Cricket SA/Facebook
So much has happened since the halcyon days of the ICC Women’s World Cup final when the Proteas and India met at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai last November. The focus has naturally shifted from 50-overs to the shorter format with the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup on the horizon.
India have flourished in the interim, hosting the Women’s Premier League (WPL), whitewashing Sri Lanka in a five-match series, before an historic 2-1 triumph over Australia on their own soil Down Under.
On the other end of the scale, Laura Wolvaardt’s Proteas have lost five of their last six T20Is against Pakistan and New Zealand.
The obvious deduction would therefore be that the visitors should start as overwhelming favourites in the much-anticipated five-match T20I series that gets underway at Kingsmead in Durban on Friday.
Wolvaardt would not admit as much, but the Proteas skipper was thrilled to be facing one of the global powerhouses of women’s cricket in the build-up to the Women’s T20 World Cup.
“Very exciting rivalry. Obviously, in the World Cup, different format, but beat them in the group stages, and then lost the final, which was disappointing,” Wolvaardt said.
“Haven't played them since that final, obviously, so definitely looking forward to a bit of a rematch. I think we play a lot of cricket against them, so we know what they're about, and sort of already have plans in place for some of their players, which is nice.
“But yeah, I'm really looking forward to this series. Obviously, they're a great side. They've come off a lot of T20 cricket, they had a WPL recently, so yeah, it's an awesome challenge for us. It'll be very exciting. I know that they play a very brave brand of cricket, and we do too, so I think there should be some really nice contested games. Hopefully we're able to play some good cricket.”
India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur echoed Wolvaardt’s thoughts.
“I think our team is looking in good shape, and before the World Cup, so the South Africa series is very important for us. Hopefully, here also we'll play our best cricket. We want to take this opportunity very seriously and want to play very good cricket over here,” Harmanpreet said.
The recent New Zealand T20I series was a real eye-opener for the Proteas as they track towards their T20 World Cup opener against Australia in Manchester on June 13.
It prompted a shake-up of the support staff with head coach Mandla Mashimbyi bringing in Tumi Masekela (strength and conditioning coach), Andrew Puttick (batting coach) and Mduduzi Mbhatha (fielding coach), who have all worked with the Proteas Women’s side at various times before.
“Yeah, obviously big changes for us. I think the coaches that were with us were with us for a very long time, and had a very successful time with us, sort of making all of those World Cup finals while we were working together,” Wolvaardt said.
“But yeah, as Mandla said, it's just about fresh voices and fresh perspectives in the team. And the people who have come in are people that we have worked with before. I think Putters was with us a couple of years ago.
“Duzi has been around, and Tumi was with us for one series as well, so not entirely new. So I think that sort of made it a bit easier to settle in the last few days, just getting to know them. Obviously it'll take a bit of time to settle into a new way of doing things, but so far it's been really good.”
Proteas Women: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Ayanda Hlubi, Sinalo Jafta, Ayabonga Khaka, Suné Luus, Tebogo Macheke, Eliz-Mari Marx, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Kayla Reyneke, Tumi Sekhukhune and Chloé Tryon.
India Women: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana, Uma Chetry, Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (wk), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shreyanka Patil, Anushka Sharma, Deepti Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Kashvee Gautam, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, and N Shree Charani.
Start: 6pm, TV: SuperSport and Sabc 3.