DURBAN: Cricket South Africa Women’s Under-19 and Women’s National Academy coach, Dinesha Devnarain is pleased with the work the Proteas players have put in their pre-tour camps and believes that effort has fulfilled the team’s objectives in preparing for their home tour against Pakistan starting in Durban on Wednesday 20 January.
The Proteas women side have been in camp for the past five days, refining their game ahead of their first competitive international cricket in 10 months.
The last bit of action the ladies saw was the T20 Women Super League that was held in Cape Town during the month of December 2020 and Devnarain believes this series on home soil is an ideal opportunity for her academy youngsters and those who performed admirably in the T20 tournament to show their performance at the international stage.
“We were blessed enough to host a lot of camps leading up to this series that has helped our preparations to go well now and hopefully we can have a good showcase of cricket,” says the young mentor at the team’s training base in Kingsmead.
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“We have quite a few of the young academy players here and now It is a great opportunity for them and the players who have done well in the WSL (Women Super League) to take that performance to international cricket. I just hope they go out there with a fearless brand of cricket and hopefully can be match winners for their country, especially with a few of our senior players missing out due to injury.”
The Pakistan tour includes three One-Day Internationals and three T20 internationals.
The former Protea is delighted with the matches taking place in her home city of Ethekwini and is hoping to use her knowledge of home conditions to good use and is cautiously optimistic of the team’s chances against the visitors.
“Luckily, I am from Durban and in terms of acclimatizing I can give the girls few tips here and there. However, that alone will not give us the edge, at the end of the day we have to play a good brand of cricket that will show how far we have come as a team and be cognizant that Pakistan are a very good side that will give us a good run for our money.” said Devnarain.
The first ODI will be played at Kingsmead with the match live on SuperSport from 10am. The entire Pakistan tour to South Africa will be live on the premier sports channel with exclusive content of the proteas players in the BSE (Bio Secure Environment).
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