Photo Credit: Lee Warren/Gallo Images/Cricket South Africa
Cricket South Africa (CSA) is pleased to unveil the SA Emerging Women squad set to compete against Zimbabwe in a six-match T20 series scheduled from 19 – 27 November. All matches will be hosted in the capital city of Harare.
The first three unofficial T20s are slated for the Harare Sports Club, followed by the latter half at the Takashinga Sports Club. The matches will kick off at 14h00 local time for the first three contests, while the remaining fixtures will commence at an earlier time of 12h00.
Guided by head coach Dinesha Devnarain, the 15-player squad encompasses a mix of Proteas-capped players, along with talents from the CSA National Academy and SA U19 setups.
The captaincy responsibilities will be shared between all-rounders Nondumiso Shangase and Leah Jones, each leading the team in three matches.
SA Emerging Women Squad vs Zimbabwe (2023/24):
Nobulumko Baneti (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers), Annerie Dercksen (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers), Mieke de Ridder (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers), Jenna Evans (DP World Lions), Lara Goodall (Western Province), Ayanda Hlubi (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Leah Jones (Western Province), Tebogo Macheke (Fidelity Titans), Eliz-Mari Marx (Fidelity Titans), Refilwe Moncho (DP World Lions), Seshnie Naidu (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Asakhe Nyovane (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers), Nondumiso Shangase (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Andrie Steyn (Western Province), Jané Winster (Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers)
Proteas Women Convenor of Selectors, Clinton du Preez commented:
“The main focus around selection was to provide opportunity to our players who were involved in the national academy during the winter. This tour will reward the players with game time and address succession planning within the pipeline. One or two players from the national squad, who were part of the recent Pakistan and New Zealand tours, were considered as players who require some game time.
“The panel remains excited for the opportunity of the tour and would like to wish every player and the management well for this upcoming tour,” he said.
CSA National Academy and SA U19 Women head coach, Dinesha Devnarain stated:
“This T20 tour is really important. The National Academy team worked thoroughly for two months and it is always nice and deserving that they get a series to utilise the skills that were learnt over that period and to showcase it to another opposition. It’s good that we are touring away, I don’t think many girls have been away, so it is good that it is against an international women’s team as well.
“Zimbabwe in general come with an attacking mindset and an attacking brand of cricket and they want to go there and beat us, so for the ladies to go there and be exposed to that sort of pressure, having not engaged in international cricket (before), is good.
“We have implemented a brand for two years now in the country from a high-performance space, so now we want to see the fruits of that programme. The girls are very clued up to that brand of cricket. It’s a brand of cricket that is sort of innovative, definitely game-changing and I would like to say aggressive but it’s just about using our strengths as our main focus.
“When you have six T20s very close with each other, you have to go to the steps that make it work and one of those is the brand of cricket that we have been playing. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s good cricket to watch and hopefully the girls will be able to pull off that sort of brand of cricket,” the coach concluded.
Notably, there is recent history between the two teams, with Zimbabwe touring South Africa in August 2022. In that T20 series, South Africa’s leading performers included Anneke Bosch with 124 runs at an average of 31 with the bat and leg-spinner Seshnie Naidu with six wickets in five matches at 16.50.
Fixtures: SA Emerging Women vs Zimbabwe
Sunday, 19 November @ 14h00 CAT – 1st T20 – Zimbabwe vs SA Emerging Women (Harare Sports Club, Harare)
Monday, 20 November @ 14h00 CAT– 2nd T20 – Zimbabwe vs SA Emerging Women (Harare Sports Club, Harare)
Wednesday, 22 November @ 14h00 CAT – 3rd T20 – Zimbabwe vs SA Emerging Women (Harare Sports Club, Harare)
Friday, 24 November @ 12h00 CAT – 4th T20 – Zimbabwe vs SA Emerging Women (Takashinga Sports Club, Harare)
Sunday, 26 November @ 12h00 CAT – 5th T20 – Zimbabwe vs SA Emerging Women (Takashinga Sports Club, Harare)
Monday, 27 November @ 12h00 CAT – 6th T20 – Zimbabwe vs SA Emerging Women (Takashinga Sports Club, Harare)
