Marizanne Kapp hailed South Africa’s composure under pressure after the Proteas Women kept their T20 World Cup semi-final hopes alive with a crucial six-wicket victory against India.
Kapp produced a superb all-round display, taking 2-27 before blasting an unbeaten 81 from 45 balls to guide South Africa to a tense chase of their 159 target.
The veteran all-rounder admitted it had been one of the finest T20 innings of her illustrious career.
“Definitely, it’s probably the best T20 innings I’ve played, especially against the quality of the Indian attack on a wicket that suited the spinners a bit more,” said Kapp.
“It’s always a fight against India and that’s what makes these games so special.”
South Africa found themselves under pressure after a shaky start in their response, but Kapp and Tazmin Brits combined for a crucial partnership that steadied the innings before launching the counter-attack.
“We didn’t get off to a great start, but that partnership with Taz and her innings stabilised the chase,” said Kapp.
“We kept saying that if we didn’t let the required rate get too far beyond 10 an over, we could catch up later,” she said. “It was a wicket where the longer you stayed in, the easier it became.”
Kapp powers Proteas Women past India in thriller
“The biggest thing was building a partnership first. You can’t afford to lose wickets in that period. Once we got ourselves in, we knew we could target the back end.”
Kapp revealed she had battled illness before the match, but drew satisfaction from helping her side secure a vital victory.
“I actually felt quite ill during the warm-up and didn’t feel well at all. But this was a wonderful game of cricket for us and I’m just happy with the win.”
The victory revived South Africa’s campaign after a huge defeat to Australia in their opening game, with Kapp backing the squad to improve further.
“We always seem to start World Cups a bit slowly, but we just keep working hard,” she said.
“We still haven’t played our best cricket. There are players who are due big performances and that’s the exciting thing about this team.”
South Africa have beaten Pakistan and now India to put themselves right back in semi-final contention in a tough Group A.
With matches against the Netherlands and Bangladesh remaining, Kapp insisted the Proteas will not look beyond their next assignment.
“We had one job today and that was to win a cricket match. Now our focus moves to the Netherlands and Bangladesh, so we can’t look too far ahead. Those are also good teams in their own right.”
Proteas Women T20 World Cup Fixtures
25 June: South Africa vs Netherlands, Bristol County Ground, Bristol (7:30pm)
28 June: South Africa vs Bangladesh, Lord’s, London (11:30am)
Photo: George Wood/Getty Images
