London, July 1 (IANS) South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said the side head into their Women’s T20 World Cup semi‑final against England, to be played in front of a packed crowd at The Oval on Thursday, buoyed by past knockout wins over the hosts, as they chase a third successive final appearance.

“We’ve been able to beat England twice in knockout phases in World Cups, so it’s not foreign territory for us. We can beat anyone on the day. So, trying to think back to those tournaments, what we did well in those semi‑finals, what sort of mindset we were in. But I think this is a team that really is able to rise to the big occasions, so, hopefully everyone’s at their best tomorrow,” said Laura in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

South Africa, runners‑up in 2024 and 2023 editions, qualified as the second‑placed team from Group A, while England have dominated the competition with five straight wins. The Proteas’ batting faltered against Australia and looked shaky against Pakistan, but Tazmin Brits and Marizanne Kapp held firm in a crunch six‑wicket win over India.

“I think our bowling has been pretty good. I think different phases and different games, but I think having Kapp and Shabnim up early in the powerplay have been a big boost for us. I think we had a number of games where even if they did get off to a decent start, we were able to bring it back nicely.

“With the bat, we probably haven’t been at 100%. I think all of our batters will admit they’d like to score a bit more runs, but I think it’s a good thing and a pretty exciting thing because when they do come off, hopefully in the next game, it’ll be a pretty good game,” added Laura.

She also stressed on the need to harness South Africa’s power hitters in the big clash. “A big focus of ours is that power game. We have a lot of young talent that is just really good at it. Maybe we need to stack them throughout the innings so that we’re able to keep going in all the different phases.”

–IANS

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