Proteas in mental battle to rewrite Women’s Cricket World Cup history in face-off against England

The Proteas are looking to rewrite history when they come to blows with England in the first Women’s Cricket World Cup semifinal on Wednesday.

It’s the fourth time South Africa have reached the semifinal stage of the 50-over tournament. They failed to reach the final in those previous three attempts. The last two of those, they fell to defeat at the hands of England — their opponents again on Wednesday.

History does not favour South Africa. But this Proteas side is not the same as those of the past, according to captain Laura Wolvaardt.

“We’re a totally different looking side,” the skipper said ahead of the crucial clash.

“They have a lot of different players as well. It’s sort of a fresh opportunity and it starts from zero.”

Top-order batter Suné Luus who, like Wolvaardt, was in the playing XI in both of those defeats against England – at the 2017 Cricket World Cup and 2022 edition – agrees that those defeats are being left in the past.

“Those semifinals happened a very long time ago,” she said. “It’s just another semifinal for us, no matter who we’re playing.

“We’re just focused on getting through the semifinal, playing good cricket, hopefully our best game yet, so that we can get momentum into that final.”

Since those 50-over tournaments, South Africa have found a way to progress past the semifinal stage at the 20-over edition of the global showpiece. In fact, they did so twice, at the 2023 T20 World Cup at home as well as the 2024 version in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2023, their path to the final included beating England by six-runs in the semifinals in Cape Town.

They’ve done it before – albeit in a different format – and will be hoping to repeat the more recent history.

Sandwiched defeats

South Africa had a brilliant five-match undefeated run to reach the knockout stage of the tournament. It included beating Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Bangladesh.

But those were sandwiched between humbling defeats to Australia and England, who finished the round-robin phase of the tournament in first and second on the table, respectively. England handed South Africa the first lashing, a 10-wicket win after bowling the Proteas out for 69.

The left-arm finger spin of Linsey Smith did the chief destruction, taking three top-order wickets in the four overs she bowled with the new ball, while only conceding seven runs.

Against Australia, it was the leg-spin of Alana King – recording the best figures at a Cricket World Cup in seven wickets for 18 runs – which saw South Africa bowled out for 97 runs.

Australia easily chased the score, winning by seven-wickets.

On both those occasions South Africa batted first, the only other time they batted first in the tournament was against Pakistan. In a match they scored 312 runs in 40 overs after the rain curtailed the duration of the match.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions on even if we do find ourselves in a bit of trouble early, that we’re able to work towards a target,” skipper Wolvaardt explained about readjusting targets when wickets fall early.

“That’s what we didn’t do so well in that Australia game we lost wickets but then kept trying to still score 350, whereas, if we could have assessed and said maybe if we get 260 here, it’s still game on.”

The threat of the left-arm spin of Smith will be a task to tackle again in the semifinal. Despite what her bowling is called, the danger South Africa faced was the ball she delivered with the seam up and swinging in towards the right handers.

“We faced very similar bowlers to her throughout the tournament,” Luus explained about Smith. “We’ve looked back to that game and saw where we can improve and where our errors were.”

Mental preparation

South Africa’s preparation for the encounter at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati has been targeted on the mental side of the game.

“It’s definitely not a skill thing,” Wolvaardt explained about the previous collapses against England and Australia. “Most of our discussions leading up to tomorrow have just been about making sure that we’re in the right mental state to play the game, really believing in our preparation, really trusting in our skills and what we’ve done before.”

According to Wolvaardt, whoever is able to absorb the pressure best in the most crucial moments of the match will come out on top.

“Fifty-overs is a very long time and it’s very easy to let the pressure of a semifinal get to you,” she said.

“But it’s still just a game of cricket and there’ll be ups and downs within the game, and the team that sort of rides those waves the best throughout the 100-over game will come out on top.

“[I’ll just be] keeping everyone calm. We have our plans in place, we’re trying to stick to those as best as we can.”

South Africa’s battle to rewrite history will be fought physically and mentally. DM

The first ball will be bowled at 11.30am South African time at the ACA Stadium in India.