Proteas opening batter Laura Wolvaardt plays a shot during a warm-up match against Pakistan on Wednesday. Picture: Grant Pitcher/ICC/Getty Images
The Proteas women head into the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on a high after they beat Pakistan by six wickets in their final warm-up match at Boland Park in Paarl on Wednesday.
It has been a strong build-up to the competition overall for the hosts, winning the Tri-Series competition in East London last week after beating India in the final, and though they lost their first warm-up game against England earlier this week they put in a fighting performance.
They will now look to take the momentum built up into the showpiece event where they will be hoping to impress on home soil.
“I think we have had great prep. Coming from (winning in) East London and then in both warm-up games most of our batters made runs and our bowlers had a good bowl out. So I think it has been perfect prep and now we are just raring to go on Friday,” said Proteas opener Laura Wolvaardt.
Wolvaardt was in top batting form in the final warm-up for the Proteas and she will also take a lot of confidence out of the game herself.
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Pakistan batted first and scored 142/5 in their 20 overs, thanks largely to Aliya Riaz who struck an unbeaten 48 off 30 balls (7×4; 1×6), while she was backed up well by Ayesha Naseem (21 off 12).
Ayabonga Khaka, 2/23, was the pick of the Proteas bowlers, while Nonkululeko Mlaba, 1/16, bowled an impressive four overs.
The Proteas chase was then set-up by a 107-run opening stand in 12.4 overs between Wolvaardt, 65 off 42 balls (5×4; 3×6) and Tazmin Britz, 36 off 37 (6×4), which allowed them to cruise home easily in the end.
For Wolvaardt it was a good experience as she has been trying to be more aggressive at the top of the order and she was happy with her effort.
“I think this game was perfect preparation. We will be playing one of our group games here. So it was good to get a sense of the conditions and see how the pitch played against good opposition,” said Wolvaardt.
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“It was a good chase for us as well, which is always good to practice. So it is great preparation overall for us,” she added.
“We are trying to capitalise more on the powerplay and with the way it is going in T20 cricket I have to try and play a few more shots, so it’s just about playing with a positive mindset and hopefully I can pull it off in the World Cup as well.”
The Proteas open their T20 World Cup campaign with a pool clash against Sri Lanka at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday night (7pm start).
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