🏏ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025: NZW vs BDW Match.11🏏 - Page 8

What they said:

"I think dealing with expectations is simple - not think too much about it. The more importance you give it, the more it will feel like pressure. But the more we stick to not playing to the people's expectations, but to playing to the plans of the team. If we focus on that, I think that everything else goes blurry in the background and is taken care of. So, I think it's pretty simple. Just focus on what we can control, what's in our hands, our plans, our execution, and we just leave the rest." - Jemimah Rodrigues on the pressures of a home World Cup

"Sometimes it's really hard to take, especially your first game. There's been a massive hype about this World Cup and you rock up and you get rolled for 70, which is never nice. And I think everybody took it quite personally. We didn't dig too deep into it, to be honest. I think, and Laura [Wolvaardt] said it as well, we're much better than 69 all out. We just had a horrible day and there was no one that put their hands up and kind of just got stuck in the middle. But we know that happens in cricket sometimes, so I think we moved on pretty quickly." - Nadine de Klerk on how South Africa overcame the horrors of their tournament opener

The two captains are seen having a conversation with Trudy Anderson (match referee) just outside the boundary rope. Now, the onfield umpires join them. The team sheets have been returned and the captains walk in different directions. Harman now has a bat in her hand. So, the toss is further delayed. And here's an update. Toss at 3:30 PM, Play to start at 4 PM, no overs lost.

Tazmin Brits: Yeah, social media is definitely blowing up but I try not to focus on that too much. I've already put the (previous) game in the past, onto the next game and that's what I'm going to be doing. Definitely, I never thought of that (quickest to reach 7 ODI hundreds). If you look at the ranking a few months ago I wasn't even in the top 100. I don't know if you want to call it form or you want to call it luck. But yeah, just taking it as it comes. I don't want to look too much into it and yeah hopefully I can continue. (What do you want to call this form?) Preparation. I've been preparing quite well. I think we've been having a lot of batting camps as I said in previous interviews which definitely have been helping. So yeah, I think it's just preparation. Yeah, that's quite a big number (referring to her improved average while playing the drive). We've been working on a few things. I've been trying to get in better positions as well and also maybe play a bit more 360. I used to be leg-side dominant a lot of times due to the fact of my grip. My grip used to be bottom hand dominant but now I've changed that. So it's also a bit closer but yeah, I had to take the risk in changing that. The coach had a look at that and I trust them. They're the guys that know best and I was happy it's carrying on. I already got a DM from a few people that want me to do a few celebrations. I actually put it out to the fans. Like I said, the 50 will always remain for my dad but when you get to 100, you don't want to do a ballerina again. You want to do something different and it's actually quite nice. I mean, there's a lot of Indian fans as well that have suggested the celebrations. So yeah, I'm looking forward to hopefully, I can score another hundred and do that.

Pratika Rawal: Both the games for us have been challenging, both the opponents were tremendous. The good thing about our team is that we have a lot of depth in our batting. Whenever there's doubt, someone raises their hand and gets us through that. It's very good to see that depth and there's a lot of confidence. I think I'm just making a few errors. I'm trying to make less errors in the upcoming games. I had a good start in both the games, I just need to convert it. I think it's part and parcel of the game, as a batter, I think you just need one ball to get out. With her (Smriti Mandhana), I don't think there's some issue that's going on. My role remains the same even if she gets out. I'm playing in the same way that the team requires. So, in order for me to play a longer innings, the role doesn't change. So, it's just one or two matches that we did not get a good start. But I'm pretty confident that we're going to get a good start in this match.

Wolvaardt calls heads, and heads it is. South Africa will bowl first. Says the wicket looks good, and that the rain has influenced her decision to bowl first. Klaas goes out, Sekhukhune comes in. They hope to have another good game today, after getting past New Zealand. Adds that Brits has been great and hopes her form continues. Very exciting day for us, she mentions but trying not to think too much about it, and taking every ball as it comes.

Harmanpreet Kaur: Looking at the conditions, bowling. Hopefully we'll put a decent total. Amanjot is back in place of Renuka. We need to keep showing improvament. First two games, we wanted to win and we did that. We want to keep doing the good things.

South Africa XI: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Tazmin Brits, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Anneke Bosch, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Tumi Sekhukhune, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba

India XI: Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana, Kranti Goud, Shree Charani

Pitch Report | Nasser Hussain and Anjum Chopra: We are on the center pitch. 57m square boundaries and 67m down the ground. Usually, it's a very good batting surface. It's a good pitch. Due to the rain, there'll be some hesitation.

Pitch Report | Nasser Hussain and Anjum Chopra: We are on the center pitch. 57m square boundaries and 67m down the ground. Usually, it's a very good batting surface. It's a good pitch. Due to the rain, there'll be some hesitation.

The flags have been unfurled by the mascots, and the teams now make their way out. The South African anthem is up first and will be followed by India's.