On Monday, February 6, West Indies Women (WI-W) and New Zealand Women (NZ-W) will face off in the opening encounter of the T20 World Cup warm-up matches at Stellenbosch University 1.
In the key tournament, New Zealand Women intends to make a serious run at the title. Prior to the competition, the team will want to assess the depth of its squad and give some of the key players some game action, so they are ready to step up when necessary.
After being humiliated by losing to South Africa and India in the Tri-Series, the West Indies team will need time to recover. They’ll try to address the gaps as soon as possible and get ready to play better cricket in the main competition.
Talking to White Ferns batting coach, Dean Brownlie ahead of the first warm-up match against West Indies after summarizing the training sessions at Pretoria, he said, “A very good prep! Played against a very strong England side in three games and had some good training sessions. Definitely things are going to improve and definitely the things we can take confidence from, so a really good prep so far.”
Discussing about the conditions at Pretoria, he remarked, “Yes, conditions were tricky, we adjusted those conditions but we’re having preparations for the World Cup, and we can learn from those experiences and nice wickets and take it into the World Cup, so we are ready to go.”
He talks about the quality of players the World Cup has got and in order to analyse the same it’s his work through the lenses of a coach to push the right player at the right time to tackle the situations.
“We are lucky to have really good, experienced players and a good coaching as well. We are lucky to get Suzie, Sophie, Maddy. Maddy has played all around the world and many pressure situations and there is so much information that they can get from senior players. The questions are definitely flowing for the younger girls to learn,” he added.
Praising Bernadine Bezuidenhout, he said, “Very impressive. We want her to come in and take the opportunity” He believes she is going to be a big part of the World Cup. He then also confirms about the impact that the 18 years old Georgia Plimmer, the U19 T20 World Cup star for the White Ferns, is going to make in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
“We would love some players to really step up and make decisions. Yes, we have got some really good players and in the coming two games we will see good performances.”
“A very good side (West Indies). They are always dangerous; they can win from anywhere. They are going to be a good team and we should play our best to take them for sure,” he concluded commenting on the first warm-up match against West Indies today.
