BENGALURU: The South African women’s cricket team landed in the city last Sunday ahead of their India tour, that includes a one-off Test, three ODIs and three T20Is. The visitors arrived after a two-week training and captain Laura Wolvaardt remains confident of a good display over the next three weeks in India.
Before the ODI series, starting June 16, South Africa will face the Board President’s XI at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Thursday. But the real test lies against top Indian players in the ODIs.
If the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh gets going with the bat, the visitors will have a tough time. Wolvaardt is also aware of the threat these batters bring to the middle and said they have spent some precious time to draw plans to outwit them.
“It is going to be a tough tour, which is going to test our bowling line-up, especially if the wicket (at Chinnaswamy) is going to be as flat as it was in the IPL. We are going to be very smart in our options,” said Wolvaardt.
“They have world-class players and the Indian batters have been doing well and with the WPL experience also, they are also explosive. So our plan A is going to be the key around our bowling attack. We have the talent and the right people, but we must plan properly for each batter.”
After the ODI series concludes on June 23, the South Africa will head over to Chennai for the Test match, starting June 28, followed by a T20I series (that starts from July 5). In the longer format, Wolvaardt is expecting ‘slow conditions’ in Chennai and are geared up for the tough test.
