CAPE TOWN – Dane van Niekerk and Marizaan Kapp shared a second wicket stand of 84 runs as South Africa began their T20 Women’s World Cup with a win against the much fancied England at the WACA in Perth on Sunday.
Having restricted England to 123/8 from their 20 overs, the South African women began their chase poorly, losing Lizelle Lee early on for just 4.
Van Niekerk was joined by Kapp in the middle and the two proceeded to punish the English bowlers to set up an unlikely six wicket victory against one of most powerful teams in women’s cricket.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Van Niekerk, who was also voted player of the match said: We spoke a lot about our planning and preparation and it’s nice when that comes together.
“I have to give credit to our bowlers – Kapp, [Ayabonga] Khaka and [Shabnim] Ismail – we couldn’t have done it without them. It was a team performance. I just try to his the stumps as much as possible and tried to stick to my game plan.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/ProteasWomen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ProteasWomenWIN!!! @MdpMinx22 Mignon du Preez finishes it off in style with another boundary - SA beat England by 6 wickets @IOLsport #ENGvSA #T20WorldCup #AlwaysRising #SAvENG
— Ashfak Mohamed (@ashfakmohamed)
On her batting, she said: “Halfway there I felt I let the team down a bit - I was batting very slowly and thank goodness I had the support I had and knowing we had the power in our batting lineup to win it,” she said.