{"id":50473,"date":"2026-02-21T14:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T14:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=50473"},"modified":"2026-02-21T14:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T14:50:43","slug":"proteas-women-gear-up-pakistan-odi-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/02\/21\/proteas-women-gear-up-pakistan-odi-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Proteas women gear up to face &#8216;really crafty&#8217; Pakistan in ODI series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>The hosts are hoping to add an ODI series win to their T20 series victory.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Proteas are expecting a tough challenge against Pakistan, according to captain Laura Wolvaardt, as they prepare for the first of three women\u2019s one-day international (ODI) matches against the tourists in Bloemfontein on Sunday (10am start).<\/p>\n<p>In their last ODI against Pakistan, the SA team thumped their opponents by 150 runs on the DLS method in a World Cup group match in Colombo in October.<\/p>\n<p>And the Proteas earned a 2-1 victory in the three-match T20 series against the sub-continent side earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Wolvaardt, however, said they were bracing for a hard-fought battle as Pakistan aimed to turn things around by returning home with a series win.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-skilful-and-competitive\">Skilful and competitive<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI think they\u2019re really competitive opponents, especially when conditions are a bit slower. They\u2019re really skilful and their spinners are really hard to get away,\u201d Wolvaardt said on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a flatter track maybe suits our side a bit more. We have a lot of power with the bat in the middle-order, but it\u2019s very conditions based.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can be really good and really crafty, so it\u2019s just about our batting unit identifying that early and identifying which shots we can play, whether it\u2019s a wicket where we have to really graft against their spinners or whether it\u2019s a wicket we can play our shots on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe play against each other a lot, so they know a lot of our weaknesses\u2026 and we\u2019ve got to keep evolving and keep adapting.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-excited-to-see-cowling-in-action\">Excited to see Cowling in action<\/h3>\n<p>It was announced earlier this week that experienced all-rounder Marizanne Kapp had been ruled out of the ODI series due to illness.<\/p>\n<p>Uncapped all-rounder Fay Cowling was called up in her place, and Wolvaardt looked forward to seeing the 18-year-old player in action if she got a chance to compete against Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s a very exciting talent. It\u2019s crazy how young she still is\u2026 so I\u2019m very excited to see her play and see how she settles in with the group,\u201d the skipper said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA fast bowling all-rounder is something that any team is excited to have, so hopefully she learns a lot from the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Proteas #women #gear #face #crafty #Pakistan #ODI #series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The hosts are hoping to add an ODI series win to their T20 series victory. The Proteas are expecting a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50475,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50473\/revisions\/50475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}