Following the challenging T20 International series, Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt believes her team is determined to bounce back with a resounding performance in the first ICC Women’s Championship (2022-25) One-Day International against Sri Lanka in East London in the Eastern Cape, on Tuesday, 8 April 2024.
The first of three day-night ODI encounters gets underway at 14h00 at the Buffalo Park Stadium, and tickets are available from TicketPro and at the stadium from R25, with the action also showcased live on SuperSport Grandstand (Channel 201).
In the pre-match press conference on Monday, Wolvaardt expressed the team’s readiness to shift focus towards the upcoming ODI series after the loss in the T20Is against Sri Lanka.
“Not the way we wanted to end the series, but we’ve had a good couple of days just to refocus, to talk about what we want to achieve in the ODI series and we’re all good to go tomorrow.”
Proteas Women Captain, Laura Wolvaardt
Reflecting on areas of improvement from the T20I series, Wolvaardt acknowledged the team’s shortcomings, particularly in key moments of the game. “In that last T20I especially, we could have been a lot better in pretty much all three departments.”
“We improved a lot on our powerplay and our death overs, but just in the middle, we could have rotated the strike a bit better. So we just spoke about plans around that and retouched our ODI framework and blueprint, and how we like to go about that.
“ODIs have been our stronger format for the last couple of months, so we’ll just look to do the same as what we’ve been doing there.”
Similarly to the T20I record between the two sides, South Africa maintains a stronghold over Sri Lanka when it comes to head-to-head battles, with the home side winning 14 of the previous 20 encounters, along with two No Results and four wins for Sri Lanka.
In the latest ICC Women’s Championship (2022-25) points table as part of the qualification pathway for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 in India, the Proteas Women occupy second place with 20 points after earning 10 wins out of 15 matches, while Sri Lanka sits third from bottom with 11 points from 15 games.
Despite South Africa holding a favourable position in the ICC Women’s Championship standings, Wolvaardt emphasized the importance of securing points in every match.
“Very important. We find ourselves in quite a good position on that log. But we still have a couple of tough series lying ahead of us, so every point that we can secure is good. It’s a massive series, Sri Lanka are a really good side and they showed that in the T20I series by putting up some good performances.
“It’s not a series that we can take lightly at all, and we’ll have to be at our best to try and secure as many points as we can.”
Addressing concerns about the weather impacting the series, Wolvaardt highlighted the challenges posed by rain disruptions; “It’s been pretty frustrating, especially from a training perspective. Just sort of been stuck in the indoors for the last couple of days, which is not ideal. And indoors usually plays quite differently to a pitch that’s been undercovers for four or five days.
“I’m not sure what the weather’s like tomorrow. I think there is a bit of rain around. We’ll just have to be flexible and be prepared to possibly play a shortened game if it comes to that. We’ve just come off of a shorter format so if it does get down to a T20, it’s not the worst thing in the world,” Wolvaardt concluded.
Fixtures and Results – South Africa Inbound Tour vs Sri Lanka 2023/24
T20 International Series
Wed 27 Mar: 1st T20I – South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 79 runs
Sat 30 Mar: 2nd T20I – South Africa lost to Sri Lanka by 7 wickets (7 balls rem.)
Wed 3 Apr: 3rd T20I – South Africa lost Sri Lanka by 4 wickets (5 balls rem.)
One-Day International Series – ICC Women’s Championship
Tue 9 Apr, 14h00: 1st ODI – South Africa vs Sri Lanka (Buffalo Park, East London)
Sat 13 Apr, 14h00: 2nd ODI – South Africa vs Sri Lanka (Diamond Oval, Kimberley)
Wed 17 Apr, 14h00: 3rd ODI – South Africa vs Sri Lanka (JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom)
Proteas Women Squad (ODI) – Inbound Tour against Sri Lanka
Laura Wolvaardt (Fidelity Titans, Captain)
Anneke Bosch (Fidelity Titans)
Tazmin Brits (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers)
Nadine de Klerk (World Sports Betting Western Province)
Sinalo Jafta (DP World Lions)
Marizanne Kapp (World Sports Betting Western Province)
Ayabonga Khaka (DP World Lions)
Masabata Klaas (Fidelity Titans)
Suné Luus (Fidelity Titans)
Eliz-Mari Marx (Fidelity Titans)
Karabo Meso* (DP World Lions)
Nonkululeko Mlaba (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
Tumi Sekhukhune (DP World Lions)
Delmi Tucker (World Sports Betting Western Province)
The Sri Lanka Squad for the T20I and ODI Series
Chamari Athapaththu (Captain)
Vishmi Gunaratne
Nilakshi de Silva
Harshitha Samarawickrama
Hasini Perera
Anushka Sanjeewani
Oshadi Ranasinghe
Udeshika Prabodhani
Kavisha Dilhari
Inoka Ranaweera
Achini Kulasuriya
Hansima Karunaratne
Imesha Dulani
Kawya Kavindi
Inoshi Fernando
Sugandika Kumari
Prasadini Weerakkody
Original Copy: Cricket South Africa, with editing by gsport
Main Photo Caption: Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt believes her team is determined to bounce back with a resounding performance in the first ICC Women’s Championship One-Day International against Sri Lanka in East London on Tuesday, 9 April, 2024. All Photo: CSA
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