Zaahier Adams
The Proteas Women’s can now look forward to a rematch of last year’s ICC T20 World Cup final with world champions Australia tomorrow in Dubai after edging through to their third consecutive semi-final.
Laura Wolvaardt’s team had endured three days of anxiously awaiting their fate, but could ultimately breathe a huge sigh of relief after the West Indies beat England by six wickets in the final round-robin match in Dubai to ensure the Proteas’ progression to the semis.
The Windies, who are the only team to win this competition other than Australia since 2010, completed a fairytale to top the group and thereby send England crashing out of the tournament.
The West Indies, Proteas and England all finished on six points with three wins apiece from four matches. However, the Windies boasted a superior net run-rate of 1.504 compared to the Proteas (1.382) and England’s (1.117).
The Windies’ victory also broke a run of 13 consecutive T20I defeats to England.
The Proteas had opted to train whilst the shootout was underway at the Dubai International Stadium, but broke out into shrieks of delight when team media liaison Lita Gqirana informed them of their progression.
"It is obviously good news to get when you’ve just finished a net session," said Proteas all-rounder Marizanne Kapp.
"I feel like we still haven’t played our best cricket yet. But luckily we’ve done enough.
"It doesn’t stop at the semi-finals now though. We’ve had too many semi-finals where we’ve just bombed out, so we are definitely looking forward to competing in that semi and hopefully get through to that final again."
The Proteas face an almighty task to upset the juggernaut Aussie team, who despite being injury-ravaged during this tournament have still managed to secure their passage to their semis with four consecutive victories.
Wolvaardt’s charges will, though, take confidence from the fact that they achieved their maiden victories over Australia in both white-ball formats on their tour Down Under at the beginning of the year.
"We are prepared to face Australia. All the prep tonight was geared to facing Australia," Kapp said.
"Look, you have to beat any of those teams on the day. It is whoever rocks up and plays the best cricket. We know they are a very successful team, but we’ve been in semi-finals and we’ve won one. We went to the final, so we’ll be positive going into that semi-final."
The West Indies will face New Zealand in the second semi-final in Sharjah on Friday.