The Proteas Women will have to pull themselves together and put themselves out of the water for their must-win ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final pool match against Bangladesh at Newlands on Tuesday night.
At that stage, they may have been eliminated from the competition, meaning that if Sri Lanka beat New Zealand in their pool clash on Sunday night, they will progress, while a win for the White Ferns means the Proteas will have to beat Bangladesh to make it. it’s a three way tie on the log.
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That means the qualification will be down to the net run rate, which the Proteas will be happy with now as the two losses to Australia and Sri Lanka were not big, when they thrashed New Zealand and thus have a good net run rate.
Regardless of what happens before, the team wants to end the high-rise pool stage in Cape Town on Tuesday night.
“We have to keep an eye on the game (Sri Lanka v New Zealand). But we still have a game to play on Tuesday and we are very focused,” Proteas captain Sune Luus said.
“It’s the last (pool) match against Bangladesh. So we’re 100% going to leave everything on the field and give it our all, no matter what the other result is.
Didn’t go to plan
Looking at the match against Australia on Saturday night, in which they lost by six wickets, Luus admitted that things did not go well.
“We didn’t fight him like we wanted. But I don’t think it’s cricket, we want to come to you or not,” said Luus.
“I’m still very proud of the girls and some of the performances they put in. Win or lose we’re still a team and just refocusing and rebuilding for the next game.”
In Saturday’s match, the Proteas batted at a below-par 124/6 first, before Australia recovered from 40/3 to cruise to a six-wicket win with 21 balls to spare.
“We lost a few wickets one at a time and that kind of broke the momentum for us. Then we couldn’t adjust and get the big score we wanted,” said Luus.
“I felt that they played long and hit the field hard. Even the spinners did not give us much room or bowl in the slot. They bowled hard again long and the spinners really dug into the wicket.
“So I think it’s both. We’ve had some average batting and some good bowling as well. But kudos to them for how they did that innings.