Defending champions Windies set to take on confident SA

Stand-alone Women’s World T20 tournament…
– Mohammed to play 100th T20I

By Brandon Corlette

South Africa and West Indies have both registered victories in their first official matches of the Women’s World T20 2018 tournament.

The defending champions, West Indies destroyed Bangladesh on the back of Deandra Dottin’s five-wicket haul while South Africa cruised to victory against Sri Lanka by seven wickets in St Lucia.
West Indies will play South Africa today in Gros Islet, St Lucia at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium with the match scheduled for 20:00h.

These two teams were involved in a competitive One-Day International and T20 International series in the Caribbean this year. The South African girls started the One-Day series against West Indies with a 40- run win at Bridgetown, Barbados. In the second ODI, the match was abandoned due to rain, but in the final ODI the Caribbean girls bounced back with a 115-run win to level the three-match ODI series 1-1. Similarly, the T20 International five-match series was levelled 2-2 with West Indies winning the first two matches and South Africa completing two successive victories after rain washed out the third match.
The leading South African batter in that series was Dane van Niekerk with 176 runs at an average of 88 inclusive of two half-centuries. She is currently ranked 12th in ODIs and 14th in T20Is. West Indies bowlers will have to be consistent when bowling to van Niekerk as well as Lizelle Lee. The dangerous Lee is the wicketkeeper-batter who bats at the top of the order in fearless fashion. In ODIs, she is the number five-ranked batter. In South Africa’s bowling department, they will look to the experienced duo of Shabnim Ismail and Marizanne Kapp.
West Indies will continue to bank on their top players Stafanie Taylor and Dottin among other notable stars. Vice Captain Hayley Matthews has recently scored a century against the same South African bowling attack and she will be hoping to replicate such performance in the West Indies second match of this prestigious tournament. Natasha McLean, who is described as attacking and fearless by her skipper Stafanie Taylor, was very consistent against South Africa in the T20 series. McLean racked up 160 runs in four innings with an exceptional average of 80.
The 30-year-old Anisa Mohammed, who did not get an opportunity to bowl in the first match against Bangladesh, will play her 100th T20 International match. The spin queen has 113 wickets in the shortest format of the game and has three five-wicket hauls in T20Is on her curriculum vitae.
West Indies women and England women are among the teams that won the World T20 tournament in the past and they are expected to qualify for the semis in Group A. However, the recently-concluded series against West Indies showed that the South African team have improved in all aspects of the game and will continue to compete with the top teams (England and West Indies) to book a semi-final spot.