Proteas women refreshed and focused on ODI points battle - Wolvaardt

Following the challenging T20 International (T20I) series, Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt believes her team is determined to bounce back with a resounding performance in the first ICC Women’s Championship (2022-25) one-day international (ODI) against Sri Lanka in East London.

The first of three day-night ODI encounters gets under way on Tuesday, 9 April, from 2pm at the Buffalo Park Stadium.

Tickets are available from TicketPro and at the stadium from R25, with the action also showcased live on SuperSport Grandstand (Channel 201).

In the pre-match press conference on Monday, Wolvaardt expressed the team's readiness to shift focus towards the upcoming ODI series after the loss in the T20Is against Sri Lanka.

“Not the way we wanted to end the series, but we've had a good couple of days just to refocus, to talk about what we want to achieve in the ODI series and we're all good to go tomorrow,” she commented.

Reflecting on areas of improvement from the T20I series, Wolvaardt acknowledged the team's shortcomings, particularly in key moments of the game.

“In that last T20I especially, we could have been a lot better in pretty much all three departments. We dropped some key catches, we didn't execute well enough with the ball and with the bat, we fell flat a bit in that middle period.

“We improved a lot on our powerplay and our death overs, but just in the middle, we could have rotated the strike a bit better. So we just spoke about plans around that and retouched our ODI framework and blueprint, and how we like to go about that. ODIs have been our stronger format for the last couple of months, so we'll just look to do the same as what we've been doing there,” the skipper added.

'A MASSIVE SERIES'

Similarly to the T20I record between the two sides, South Africa maintain a stronghold over Sri Lanka when it comes to head-to-head battles, with the home side winning 14 of the previous 20 encounters, along with two No Results and four wins for Sri Lanka.

In the latest ICC Women’s Championship (2022-25) points table as part of the qualification pathway for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 in India, the Proteas Women occupy second place with 20 points after earning 10 wins out of 15 matches while Sri Lanka sits third from bottom with 11 points from 15 games.

Despite South Africa holding a favourable position in the ICC Women's Championship standings, Wolvaardt emphasized the importance of securing points in every match.

“Very important. We find ourselves in quite a good position on that log. But we still have a couple of tough series lying ahead of us, so every point that we can secure is good. It's a massive series, Sri Lanka are a really good side and they showed that in the T20I series by putting up some good performances.

“It's not a series that we can take lightly at all, and we'll have to be at our best to try and secure as many points as we can,” the 24-year-old said.

'HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE'

Addressing concerns about the weather impacting the series, Wolvaardt highlighted the challenges posed by rain disruptions; “It's been pretty frustrating, especially from a training perspective. Just sort of been stuck in the indoors for the last couple of days, which is not ideal. And indoors usually plays quite differently to a pitch that's been undercovers for four or five days.

“I'm not sure what the weather's like tomorrow. I think there is a bit of rain around. We'll just have to be flexible and be prepared to possibly play a shortened game if it comes to that. We've just come off of a shorter format so if it does get down to a T20, it's not the worst thing in the world,” Wolvaardt concluded.

Proteas Women Squad (ODI) - Inbound Tour against Sri Lanka

Laura Wolvaardt (Fidelity Titans, Captain), Anneke Bosch (Fidelity Titans), Tazmin Brits (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers), Nadine de Klerk (World Sports Betting Western Province), Sinalo Jafta (DP World Lions), Marizanne Kapp (World Sports Betting Western Province), Ayabonga Khaka (DP World Lions), Masabata Klaas (Fidelity Titans), Suné Luus (Fidelity Titans), Eliz-Mari Marx (Fidelity Titans), Karabo Meso* (DP World Lions), Nonkululeko Mlaba (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Tumi Sekhukhune (DP World Lions), Delmi Tucker (World Sports Betting Western Province)

RESULTS:

T20 International Series

1st T20I

South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 79 runs

South Africa: 198/5 after 20 overs; L. Wolvaardt 102 (63), M. Kapp 60 (40); A. Kulasuriya 2/39, I. Priyadharshani 1/25

Sri Lanka: 119 all out after 18.2 overs; H. Samarawickrama 38 (33), H. Perera 30 (18); A. Dercksen 2/15, T. Sekhukhune 2/25

2ND T20I

Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 7 wickets

South Africa: 137/8 after 20 overs; A. Bosch 50 (32), M. Kapp 44 (36); A. Kulasuriya 2/26, C. Athapaththu 1/18

Sri Lanka: 138/3 after 18.5 overs; V. Gunaratne 65* (57), K. Dilhari 45* (28); C. Tryon 1/14, N. de Klerk 1/27

3RD T20I

Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 4 wickets

South Africa: 155/6 after 20 overs; L. Wolvaardt 56 (47), N. de Klerk 44 (25); S. Kumari 3/24, I. Priyadharshani 1/18

Sri Lanka: 156/6 after 19.1 overs; C. Athapaththu 73 (46), H. Samarawickrama 54 (43); N. de Klerk 2/25, T. Sekhukhune 1/24

ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL SERIES - ICC WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP:

Tuesday, 9 April @ 2pm

1st ODI - South Africa v Sri Lanka (Buffalo Park, East London)

Saturday, 13 April @ 2pm

2nd ODI - South Africa v Sri Lanka (Diamond Oval, Kimberley)

Wednesday, 17 April@ 2pm

3rd ODI - South Africa v Sri Lanka (JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom)