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Cape Town - Proteas captain Dané van Niekerk says her team is ready for what they know will be a tough tour against England on their home turf.
Speaking on the eve of the first ODI in Worcester, the South African skipper is satisfied with her team's preparation.
Van Niekerk believes that they are ready to showcase their growth since the sides met in the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup semi-final where England came out on top and were eventually crowned the champions.
"Tomorrow we're playing one of the best sides in the world, a challenging side and a very talented side, but having said that, we have a very talented side as well so it's going to be a great match up," she commented.
"They played really good cricket throughout the World Cup and they used their home ground advantage to the fullest. A goal we've set as a team is to beat England at home, it won't be easy, but that's what we're here for.
"I think the team that applies themselves the quickest and the best will come out on top. Hopefully, with all the plans we've made, that will be us."
The Proteas, who arrived in England on Monday, have been hard at work adapting the very different English conditions.
They played a warm-up match against the England Women's Academy that saw them fall four wickets short in the end, but Van Niekerk believes that the match went a long way in showing the team which areas needed their attention and is confident that they have adjusted accordingly.
"The first thing that we noticed was that it’s still pretty cold for what should be summer," she explained.
"We can't worry too much about that though, the weather is not something that we can control. I didn't play the warm-up game, but (having watched it) I thought we didn’t apply ourselves well enough. In these types of conditions you need to sum things up pretty quickly and you need to figure out what’s a good line and length, what are good shots to play on this wicket and what are high risk shots.
"Yesterday and today we had very good practice sessions where the batters really applied themselves. I was really impressed with the bowlers and the way they used the conditions and got the ball to swing. The game plans that they have come up with as well show some good out-of-the-box thinking and I’m quite excited to see what they do tomorrow."
The three-match series forms part of the ICC Women's Championship, the qualifying tournament for the 2021 ICC Women's World Cup and Van Niekerk wants a direct qualification for her team this time around.
"It's very important to get off to a winning start because it sets up the series," she went on.
"The confidence and momentum we've built from the Bangladesh series didn't go to waste. It's important to us to get those points, we speak about it quite a lot, we don't want to have to go to the qualifiers again and that means we'll have to beat the best and get them."
Saturday's match will be broadcast live on SuperSport 12 at 12:00 (SAST).
Proteas squad:
Dané van Niekerk (captain, Eastern Province), Lizelle Lee (North West), Chloe Tryon (KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins), Mignon du Preez (Northerns), Marizanne Kapp (Eastern Province), Shabnim Ismail (Gauteng), Ayabonga Khaka (Gauteng), Masabata Klaas (North West), Raisibe Ntozakhe (Gauteng), Suné Luus (Northerns), Laura Wolvaardt (Western Province), Andrie Steyn (Western Province), Zintle Mali (Border), Stacey Lackay (Western Province), Tazmin Brits (North West)
Tour Itinerary
ICC Women's Championship Royal London ODIs v South Africa
June 9, First ODI v South Africa - New Road, Worcester
June 12, Second ODI v South Africa - The 1st Central County Ground, Hove (D/N)
June 15, Third ODI v South Africa - Canterbury (D/N)
IT20 Tri-Series - England, South Africa & New Zealand
June 20 - The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, South Africa v New Zealand; England v South Africa
June 23 - The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, England v South Africa; England v New Zealand
June 28 - The Brightside Ground, Bristol, South Africa v New Zealand; England v New Zealand
July 1 - Final - The CloudFM County Ground, Chelmsford
