It is important to finish as well as we can - Du Preez
Momentum Proteas women's captain, Mignon du Preez says her team will continue to give their all ahead of their last match of the ICC Women's World Cup against Sri Lanka. The two sides will meet once more on Friday to decide the fifth and sixth position in the tournament.
"We will play this last game as though we still have a World Cup to win because that is the South African way. We may be out of the running for the big trophy but we are still aiming to finish in the best position that we can get," she said on Thursday.
South Africa entered the competition in eighth place at the bottom of the teams in the competition and has since risen two places after beating Pakistan to enter the Super Sixes round. Du Preez wants to stamp their place on the No 5 position.
"Previously, the top four consisted of the most dominant sides: namely England, Australia, New Zealand and India. Now the gap has shrunk to such a point that the game is almost anyone's on a team's good day. We saw that when England was beaten by Sri Lanka and with India being knocked out of the running for the Super Sixes competition," Du Preez continued.
Coach, Hilton Moreeng agrees with his captain.
"We saw too many upsets in this competition for people to still believe that the game of cricket is dominated by a certain group. The West Indies are now in the top two after qualifying for the final against Australia and that's big news for a team that's come from the bottom four," he said.
Moreeng believes that he has the squad that will make the final one day, provided they get more international experience in the form of game time against quality opposition.
"Our side did really well to pick themselves up yesterday (Wednesday) and to beat Sri Lanka by 110 runs after losing two games in a row. We've learned many lessons and we get better with each game we play, this is why more internationals are necessary for South Africa's women's team to grow and the opposition must also be strong. We need to play against the England’s and Australia’s of this world if we want to one day be a dominant country in world cricket," he concluded.
