Women’s Cricket Hots Up

This weekend sees eight Women’s Provincial League One-Day Challenge cricket matches being played in the championship’s two groups, as the tournament gears into full swing.

The tournament is divided into two groups, the Inland and Coastal Challenges, and gsport spoke to Border’s captain, Liezel Jordaan, to find out how their team is preparing for Saturday’s match against Sekunjalo Western Province in the Coastal Challenge.

“We lost our first game of season against Eastern Province,” commented Jordaan, “But the girls were still getting loose, and we’ve written it off, and now we’re just going to put every effort into our next game.

“It was not our best game, it was not a very good performance all-round, batting and bowling, but our coach has been very hard on us, and we have picked up on those areas in which we collapsed a bit,” said Jordaan.

A home game against WP beckons for Border at Buffalo Park, and Jordaan was positive of repeating their strong performances with home-ground advantage.

“We know the Province players’ weaknesses and strengths,” Jordaan told gsport. “The whole side is a very good team, so we’re just going to take one batsman at a time.

“We’ll be playing at home, and we have a very good record at Buffalo Park, we’re looking to repeat another win,” Jordaan concluded.

In Saturday’s second Coastal Challenge, Boland is on the road for two matches in two days, first facing Griqualand West in an away match at Kimberley, followed the next morning with a game against Free State in Bloemfontein.

Boland’s captain Sunette Loubser was frank about their intentions, but concerned about the fact that they will be driving overnight to Kimberley, and will board the bus for Bloem directly after finishing their Griqualand West game.

“We are missing an experienced player in top-order batswoman Rambaldo, who cannot get out of work commitments this weekend, but that gives us an opportunity to introduce a new cap, Cara de Villiers.

“This is good,” continued Loubser. “We have used the same squad for the past two seasons, which can be difficult for players trying to break into the team. This is a good opportunity for the new cap to show what she can do for the team.

“This weekend will be tough, because it is difficult to drive and play two matches after each other.

“We’ve been practicing at high intensity [in preparation for this weekend’s matches], but as most of the team are working, we can only practice twice each week. It’s up to everyone to stay fit, but the rest of our preparation is the same.

“We’re definitely going for two wins out of two this weekend,” continued Loubser. “We’ve haven’t had a problem beating Griqualand West before, but they scored over 200 runs the other week. We’ve beaten them every time we’ve played them, but we’re not going to go [into Saturday’s match] with that mental attitude.

“Free State is going to be more difficult,” said Loubser. “They’ve got two SA players in their team, and both of them can hit the ball very very far, and very hard. If they come off, that will be a different prospect.”

To get the latest women’s cricket information, visit the Cricket South Africa website for all the details, click here for Results and Match Summaries and Results; click here for Challenge Logs, and click here for upcoming Fixtures.