Cape Town - It is another must-win match for the Proteas who take on Sri Lanka tomorrow as they continue their search for a place in the ICC Women’s World Cup semi-finals in Taunton.
Speaking after the team’s last training session at The County Ground on Tuesday, assistant coach, Salieg Nackerdien is optimistic of the their chances, saying that they have done well in concentrating on their own game and what they want to achieve, rather than looking at what the other teams have been getting up to.
“I think the way that the team has executed their game plans has been the difference for us in this tournament,” he said. “The way that they prepared and their routines at practices has helped them understand what they want to achieve and how to go about it on match day. We’ve seen that especially with the batters.”
The team’s training session had to change to another indoor net as rain poured from early morning, keeping the South Africans from getting a final look at on-field conditions, but Nackerdien is not concerned with the situation and believes that the team is well prepared.
“It’s a positive changeroom that we have,” he continued. “The weather is not something we can control and the players know what areas that they wanted to work on so that’s what we did at the indoor net. It’s been a long tour and the fact that the team is still so positive and are working very hard says a lot about them as a group, come rain or sunshine.”
Looking ahead to the match against Sri Lanka he said;
“We are not going to underestimate Sri Lanka. We’re just going to play our game and focus on our game plans. There’s a nice calm and relaxed mood (in the changeroom), but also not over confident, we know what we’ve put in place and what we’ve discussed in our team meetings. All that is left if for the players to execute the plans to the best of their abilities.”