Proteas captain Dané van Niekerk says she has a squad ready and raring to go for their first game of the Women’s World Cup against Pakistan today (11am).
“Everyone’s fit, everyone’s excited with a few nerves creeping in, but that’s natural. Hopefully we can contain them, and just go out there and do what we do best,” said Van Niekerk.
The team are ranked number six in the ICC ODI rankings, but Van Niekerk believes that the ranking does well in helping them with not having to deal with the pressures that other, higher-ranked sides have to deal with.
She also firmly laid out her side’s objectives for the tournament.
“We’re coming into this World Cup without the big pressures that most of the other teams have to face,” she continued.
Hello game day!All the best #DaneVanNiekerk& the #ProteasWomen for their #wwc17 game v Pakistan! Watch them on SS5 at 11:00. #AlwaysRising pic.twitter.com/zXzjtO7zuG
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) June 25, 2017
“We’re not defending champions like Australia, World T20 holders like West Indies and we don’t have the weight of being the hosting nation and feeling like the eyes of everyone here are on us.
“We’re just here to play our natural game and to win. No one comes to a World Cup to just compete, we are here to go all the way and we are going to make sure that we worry about our own game more than that of the opposition to help get us there.”
All of South Africa’s fixtures will all be broadcast live on SuperSport for the first time.
The broadcast of South Africa’s match on SuperSport 5 will begin at 11am.
#ProteasWomen's captain @danevn81 is looking forward to tomorrow. #AlwaysRising #wwc17 pic.twitter.com/3x24dvKopW
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) June 24, 2017