Women’s cricket gives us a whole new team to cheer for

Johannesburg - It was 1992 all over again: disconsolate players strewn all over the Bristol County Ground turf; England, bloody England, had done us in again in a close-run World Cup semi- final; and, if Twitter is to be believed, glorious defeat united South African cricket fans once again.

For years, most of us didn’t have a clue who the South African women’s cricketers were, except on the few occasions when they were wheeled out at the annual awards. But on Tuesday, their sheer bloody-mindedness elbowed the comeback Proteas off the national cricket consciousness.

After posting a scarcely defendable 218/6, the Proteas’ women’s side took the game deep, forcing England to earn the right to host the final with a nail-biting two-wicket victory with just two balls remaining in the game.