On Saturday, South Africa will face Bangladesh in Dubai, and apart from the win, they will have to up their net run-rate.

The West Indies beat Bangladesh by eight wickets and this moved the team from the Caribbean to the top of Group B by virtue of a better net run-rate than South Africa. 

In addition, England are still unbeaten and their next match is against Scotland, and they will most likely finish at the top.

That said, the in-form English will face the Windies on Tuesday, but South Africa cannot afford to take any chances when it comes to qualifying for the semi-finals.

South Africa has a very favourable head-to-head record against Bangladesh, but the win must be convincing. The Proteas wicketkeeper, Sinalo Jafta, who will be playing in her 50th T20 International, said while they are favourites to win, in cricket a team can never underestimate their opponents.

“With Bangladesh, you always have to respect your opposition,” said Jafta. “As a team we know what’s at stake, we would love to have the two points at the end and look forward to it from there.

Stafanie Taylor and Sinola Jafta (left). Photo: Cricinfo

“But I think for us tomorrow is just focusing on how we play and how we want to go throughout this tournament and just being positive and playing positive cricket and also being really aggressive in our approach.” 

Jafta added that it will be important for the team to remain calm and back their ability. “Calmness, it has to be calm – like once you overthink it, a lot of mistakes can happen out there,” Jafta said. “I think for us it’s just being calm throughout and making sure that we get over the line and the rest will take care of itself.”

Saturday’s game between South Africa and Bangladesh in Dubai gets underway at 16:00.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg