The Proteas are now edging closer and closer to the promised land, as their commanding performance against Sri Lanka on Friday night in Colombo put them in a favourable position to qualify for the semifinals of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.
South Africa outclassed the co-hosts in front of their fans when they dismantled them with a 10-wicket haul in a rain-disrupted encounter to climb up to number two on the standings with eight points after five games.
The result meant that South Africa has now recorded four wins on the trot, one point behind leaders Australia, and another victory in the penultimate game against bottom-of-the-table Pakistan on Tuesday will be enough for them to cement their place in the last four of the World Cup.
Despite their slow start in the competition, when they suffered one of their heaviest defeats at the hands of England in their opening match, coach Mandla Mashimbyi’s side has since bounced back, to produce four impressive wins in a row.
“After that game [against England], we just kind of said to ourselves that we know we’re a lot better than that, and we just wanted to forget about it as quickly as we could,” said Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt after their game against Sri Lanka.
“I think in these tournaments, you must have a short memory with things like that.
“You must take your lessons, maybe think about what you could have done over the next couple of days.
“And then totally switch off from it and focus on the next game, which I think we’ve done really well in this competition so far.”
“I think we are still searching for that perfect game as a team, where the top-order fires and the middle-order fires, which is exciting because we’re still winning games even though certain things aren’t perfect,” Wolvaardt added.
