Van Niekerk has confidence in South Africa's bowling attack ahead of England Semi-Final
- South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk: "I came into the World Cup believing I had the best opening attack in the world, and at the moment I’m starting to believe I have the best bowling attack in the world."
- England coach Mark Robinson: “It’s a one-off game and a winner-takes-all match with a big prize at the end of it so it’s about coping with the pressure and doing the very simple things very well."
When England played South Africa in the preliminary stage of the ICC Women’s World Cup, centuries from Tammy Beaumont and Sarah Taylor set up a record-breaking batting performance in Bristol.
As the two teams return to the County Ground on Tuesday for the first semi-final, South Africa skipper Dane van Niekerk has backed her bowling attack to respond, claiming they are the best in the world.
Van Niekerk has good reason to have faith in her attack. Despite that loss, when the side conceded 373 runs, South Africa has the two most prolific wicket-takers in the tournament so far including Van Niekerk whose 15 wickets were taken at an average of 8.33
She said: “The previous game here there aren’t fond memories for the bowlers.
“(However) I came into the World Cup believing I had the best opening attack in the world, and at the moment I’m starting to believe I have the best bowling attack in the world.
“I’m really excited to see what they can do. We have our plans, thank goodness we have played here before so we can rectify things we did wrong and hopefully we can execute.
“There is a lot of belief. Our first hurdle is the semi-finals. We’ve got here but it’s going to be a very tough game.
“I’ve seen how the players have grown, the hard work they have put in. It’s like going for an exam, when you’ve studied you don’t have to stress about the exam.
“The way I’ve seen them study, if I can put it like that, I can’t have confidence in them. We’ve seen the potential throughout the previous series.”
England finished top of the standings at the end of the group stages, bouncing back from an opening defeat by India to rattle off six straight wins.
That has been based in large part on some outstanding batting displays, with five centuries in seven matches and with five players averaging more than 40.
For Mark Robinson, the clash with South Africa offers the chance to face off with his first opponent as England coach, having toured there in 2016 when England won both the one-day and T20 series 2-1.
While that was a successful tour, Robinson believes it will have little bearing on Tuesday’s encounter, with both teams much improved over the last year and a half.
He said: “We’ve played South Africa on my first tour but they’ve come a long way since then and we have too.
“It’s a one-off game and a winner-takes-all match with a big prize at the end of it so it’s about coping with the pressure and doing the very simple things very well.
“They have played a lot of cricket and you get experience from winning and losing. The young opener (Laura Wolvaardt) has been outstanding, she made her debut against us and looked a good player then and she’s had a great tournament.
“They have changed the order with (Lizelle) Lee going up front and she gets them off to a dangerous start.
“The bowlers are good full stop, but they have more depth in the batting than when we played them.
“I’ve only been in this job 18 months and all the teams have improved. When you’ve got a talented team like South Africa with talented individuals and they are getting more support and more cricket, it’s only going to happen.”
