Congratulations to the South African ladies cricket side. They have been brilliant in the last 2 weeks and been able to achieve something that their male counterparts have not been able to.
Playing and beating India in the subcontinent is one of the hardest challenges in cricket, but the Proteas Women haven't just beaten India, they have given them a cricketing lesson. To convincingly win both the ODI and T20 series against a side ranked higher than them is a remarkable achievement!!
Captain Suné Luus summed it up perfectly by saying that "the girls are backing themselves and playing fearless cricket", and this is obviously showing in the results they have achieved. There is so much confidence flowing through the side at the moment. It is something that is unfortunately sorely lacking in the men's team and they will do well to take to a leaf out of the ladies' book.
So why have our ladies done so well? Obviously a lot of credit must go to Hilton Moreeng and his management staff for their preparations ahead of the India series, but I think the big reason is that our senior players stood up to the challenge.
Its an old saying in cricket that in order to do well in big games and series' your experienced players need to play well and Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt and Suné Luus in particular have been fantastic with the bat, whilst Shabnim Ismail has led the way brilliantly with the ball. Having these senior players perform so well and consistently has paved the way for the likes of Anneke Bosch and Lara Goodall to really shine. Bosch in particular has been good with both bat and ball in the T20 series.
Partnerships have been key for the South Africans with bat in hand. The top 6 have all managed to get partnerships going during crucial stages and that has made such a big difference.
That was one of the biggest problems for the men when they recently toured Pakistan, they lost crucial wickets and crucial times, didn't get sufficient partnerships and senior players like Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock were particularly poor with the bat.
After their series' triumph, the ladies have now moved up to 2nd in the world in ODI's and are rapidly closing the gap on the top 3 in T20's. Although Australia are at the top of the pile and have a sizable lead over the chasing pack, they will have taken notice of this South African performance and will be nervously looking over their shoulder.