It may not have been a perfect performance against Pakistan at Edgbaston on Wednesday evening, but ultimately, the Proteas Women got the job done and are on the T20 World Cup scoreboard.
At least, that’s according to all-rounder Annerie Dercksen, who showed she could potentially be the answer to the long-standing No. 3 problem with her first T20 World Cup half-century.
The Proteas did many things wrong — with both ball and bat — which saw them scrape home by two wickets in a match they should have won much more comfortably. They have, though, moved off the basement of the table and into third position, and can now look ODI world champions India in the eye on Saturday with greater confidence.
“I said to the team, I’m probably going to die 30 years before I should, because we have a knack of doing this. But yeah, I think the main thing is that we ended up on the right side,” Dercksen said after the two-wicket victory.
“We’ve done it a couple of times in World Cups now, so credit to the team, credit to the people coming in and pulling that game through for us, because I think at one stage the odds were probably stacked against us a little.
“I’m proud of the fact that we were able to pull that through. I think, yeah, it was obviously a tough, tough wicket out there. I think it suited their spinners, and I thought their spinners bowled exceptionally well.
“And we probably lost a couple of wickets at crucial stages when we shouldn’t have. So now I will just go back and review that. But I think all in all, we’re still very confident that we’re a phenomenal batting line-up. We showed it not long ago against India. So yeah, hopefully we can carry that momentum into the next one.”
Dercksen suffered a hamstring strain while fielding and left the field for the latter part of Pakistan’s innings, but returned to play arguably her most important T20I innings for the Proteas.
The all-rounder is hoping it’s not too serious in order to be ready for the all-important clash against India in Manchester on Saturday.
