Siya Kolisi rallies behind Proteas Women ahead of T20 World Cup

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has wished the Proteas Women’s side good luck and urged South Africans to throw their support behind the team during the Women’s T20 World Cup.

The Women’s T20 World Cup will kick off on Friday, 10 February at 19:00 when hosts South Africa play their opening Group A match against Sri Lanka at Newlands in Cape Town.

SIYA KOLISI BACKS PROTEAS WOMEN IN T20 WORLD CUP

Siya Kolisi shared a video of himself donning a Proteas supporter’s jersey in which he sends his well wishes to the team.

“I’m getting ready to turn it up this coming weekend in support of Proteas Women in the T20 World Cup tournament. Let’s get behind them and support imboboko, because they deserve it!” Kolisi captioned his video post in Instagram.

WATCH: Siya Kolisi shows off his silky smooth dance moves at Eben Etzebeth’s wedding

SOUTH AFRICA V SRI LANKA

Players to watch

If names by themselves have a potential to lead, then it has to be Marizanne Kapp for the Proteas Women. The influential all-rounder can win the game on her own with both bat and ball, which was on show in the previous ODI World Cup (203 runs @ 40.60, 12 wickets @ 4.73 runs per over). Sri Lanka could do with some runs from their young batter Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama, who was their top-scorer in the WT20I Asia Cup (202 runs, average 25.25) and has the experience of playing in the previous WT20WC (41 runs, average 20.50).

Stat attack

Four of the five Women’s T20 World Cup games at Newlands were won batting first.

The Proteas Women may not mind chasing as nine of their previous 10 (out of 13 WT20I H2Hs) have come batting second. Six of those have been with a margin of seven or more wickets.

The last time these two sides met in a T20I, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 46 with Nadine de Klerk returning figures of 4-1-7-3.

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