Regardless of where India play in the world, they transform any stadium into a home game.
It was a similar scenario at Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday, with “The Blue Army” creating a cacophony of noise in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup clash against the Proteas.
But instead of being intimidated, Proteas all-rounder Marizanne Kapp relished the cauldron, especially with India’s fans chanting her name during her masterclass of 2/27 and a brilliant unbeaten 81 that propelled her team to a famous six-wicket victory.
“It was a tough game. Playing India is always extremely tough, and I’m very proud of the team for coming back in this game the way we did,” Kapp said.
“You’re always nervous when you come up against an Indian team. I mean, they’ve got some wonderful players, but I feel like the way we brought it back, that probably saved us today.
“But I seem to like the Indian fans. It feels like they’re shouting my name, so I don’t mind the crowd too much.”
The Proteas were way off the pace in their pursuit of India’s 158/7 at the halfway stage, but Kapp and recalled opener Tazmin Brits (40) shared a 97-run partnership to help Laura Wolvaardt’s team find their way again.
“I struggled, really struggled those first 10, 15 balls, and eventually got my timing. Then I just put my head down, and I felt like that partnership with Taz (Brits) set it up beautifully for us,” Kapp said.
“We said it’s a tough place to bat, actually, because you can’t let it get away from you too far, but you can also not lose more wickets. So we just said, if we don’t let it get past 10 runs an over, we will definitely — we’ve got the big hitters at the back end that can clear the boundary. And we just put our heads down, and as soon as we looked to be a bit more positive, it worked for us.”
Kapp had also performed brilliantly with the ball earlier in the afternoon, claiming 2/27 along with her new-ball partner Shabnim Ismail, who also bagged a creditable 2/28, to peg India back.
