LIVE | Women’s T20 World Cup: South Africa v Sri Lanka – 10 February 2023

The last time a Women’s T20 World Cup (WT20WC) was played, it was just days before Australia would be impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic and a record crowd of 86 174 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground saw Australia beat India to win the final – the last major event attended by a crowd for months in the country.

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So much has changed since then, that even India is getting ready for a Women’s Indian Premier League, which makes this edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa – coming off the heels of the inaugural Under-19 WT20WC in the same country – all the more significant.

Kicking it off will be hosts South Africa with a Group A match against Sri Lanka at Newlands in Cape Town.

The match is due to start at 19:00.

With Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh making up the group and only two spots up for grabs for the knockouts, a winning start will be vital for the home team’s first target of qualifying for the final.

In typical South African cricket management style, they started on the wrong foot off the field with a controversial decision to leave out all-time great Dane van Niekerk on fitness grounds.

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While controversy continues to engulf over her failing the 2km time trial by 18 seconds, the home team will have to cast that distraction aside and get ready under Sune Luus captaincy to let their on-field game talk.

At least the practice matches were a relief as the South African women defeated Pakistan by six wickets after losing a frantic 465-run game against England by 17 runs.

Captain Luus looked out of touch with scores of 3 & 8, but Tazmin Brits’ form (38 & 36) was a relief.

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The home team is fresh off a tri-series title win where they edged out India and West Indies with three successive wins, whilst they also boast a recent 4-1 head-2-head win-loss record in WT20WCs.

SOUTH AFRICA V SRI LANKA

Players to watch

If names by themselves have a potential to lead, then it has to be Marizanne Kapp for South Africa. The influential all-rounder can win the game on her own with both bat and ball, which was on show in the previous ODI World Cup (203 runs @ 40.60, 12 wickets @ 4.73 runs per over). Sri Lanka could do with some runs from their young batter Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama, who was their top-scorer in the WT20I Asia Cup (202 runs, average 25.25) and has the experience of playing in the previous WT20WC (41 runs, average 20.50).

Stat attack

Four of the five WT20Is at Newlands were won batting first.

South Africa may not mind chasing as nine of their previous 10 (out of 13 WT20I H2Hs) have come batting second. Six of those have been with a margin of seven or more wickets.

The last time these two sides met in a T20I, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 46 with Nadine de Klerk returning figures of 4-1-7-3.