Proteas v Netherlands: ‘We’ll peak at right time,’ says De Klerk
· Citizen
The Proteas women’s team’s batting unit has yet to fire at the T20 World Cup in England, but seasoned all-rounder Nadine de Klerk is hopeful everything will come together when it matters.
The South Africans have so far lost to Australia and beaten Pakistan and India and on Thursday take on the Netherlands in their fourth group game in Bristol (7.30pm).
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The batting has been a mixed bag: Against Australia, captain Laura Wolvaardt scored 44 (29) and De Klerk 25 (22), against Pakistan, Annerie Dercksen got 52 (35) and De Klerk 37 (28) and against India, Marizanne Kapp got 81 (45) and Tazmin Brits 40 off 36.
“Our form is getting better,” said De Klerk on Wednesday.
“We didn’t have a great start to the competition [losing to Australia], but we’ve improved the last couple of games. Different players have been putting their hands up and getting a few performances in, but we’ve not been close to our best so that’s exciting.”
She added: “We’ve had one or two match-winners with the bat, but as a whole, the batting unit hasn’t quite fired yet and that is also exciting going into the back end of the tournament. I think we’re going to peak at the best time possible.”
Partnerships have indeed been lacking up to now, something De Klerk says will hopefully be rectified against the Netherlands.
“Our bowling has been good, the fielding has been decent, but we’ve lacked batting partnerships so far,” said De Klerk, who added she, too, was seeking more consistency.
Unknown Netherland team
“My form is better than what it was in the beginning of the year. There have been glimpses … but I’m not where I want to be,” she said.
“Hopefully I can contribute a bit more. Obviously, with the bowling I’ve taken a bit of a back seat with a lot of frontline bowlers [now in the side, including Shabnim Ismil], so maybe I’m not needed as much as in the past.”
De Klerk conceded the Proteas know very little about the Netherlands team.
“We don’t know too much. We’ve never played against them. We watched some clips, and they’ve impressed in this World Cup. There’s something about their team. We’ll have to be at our best. There are no easy games, and it’s still do-or-die for us. It’s important that we rock up and play our best cricket.”
South Africa’s last group game is on Sunday against Bangladesh. They will need to beat the Netherlands Thursday and Bangladesh to stand a chance of progressing to the semi-finals. Australia will advance, with either South Africa or India.