South Africa have to turn up the heat today when they face Scotland in the Women’s T20 World Cup at the Dubai International Stadium at 12pm.
Playing in vuurwarm weather conditions, with a high of 37 degrees Celsius expected, the Proteas come off the back of a seven-wicket defeat to England in their second Group B match on Monday and will be out to make dinge even warmer on the pitch.
That defeat means SA are in third place on the log after two matches, with England on top and the West Indies (who South Africa beat in the first match) in second place.
With two matches left to play, the Proteas will be looking to boost their net run rate against the winless Scots.
The two top teams in the group advance to the playoffs, with SA seamer Nadine de Klerk saying they are confident that they can still ruk die ding under the guidance of captain Laura Wolvaardt.
Having made last year’s T20 final, De Klerk explains: “Our main focus is to win the next two games [with Bangladesh after this one]. We are pretty confident within our squad...
“Net run rate is always important in these short tournaments, but our main focus is the game and how we want to go about our business. Obviously we want to win the game first and then try to focus on the net run rate and those sorts of things.”