Exclusive: Annerie Dercksen Backs Proteas to Bounce Back Against England in T20 Series Showdown

South Africa will take to the field for the first time in a T20 encounter against England since their heartbreaking 32-run loss in the World Cup final against New Zealand last month. 

Their defeat marked their second loss in two consecutive T20 World Cups after losing to Australia by 19 runs in the 2023 final.

An opportunity to shake off disappointments from the global tournament

The Proteas will host England for an inbound tour consisting of three T20 matches, three One Day Internationals, and a one-off Test match. The first T20 match will get underway at Buffalo Park in East London on Sunday (14:00 start SA Time).

England beat South Africa by seven wickets the last time they met at the Sharjah Cricket Ground in the United Arab Emirates in the group stages of the global showpiece.

The former champions would later be upset by a six-wicket loss at the hands of the West Indies, failing to progress to the semi-finals for the first time since 2010.

In preparation, South Africa were in a pre-tour camp in Pretoria before they made the trip to East London for the first T20I on Sunday. 

All-rounder Dercksen told Sportsboom.com that she believes both teams will have a lot of areas they will want to correct, but she expects England to be on the front foot in an attempt to correct their shortfalls at the tournament.

“The mood in the camp is quite positive; the girls haven’t seen each other in a while, some of us have played some provincial cricket, and we are just overall excited to see each other and to get going with the series as the team again."

“Our last encounter with them at the World Cup was a bit closer than they would have wanted; we know we didn’t play our best game that day, but it will all stay in the past, and we will all start on zero again, and we are eager to get going with the series.”

“The expectation is that they will try to put their best foot forward in the series; obviously they didn’t have the World Cup that they wanted or anticipated to have, so I think just like us, they would have gone back to the drawing board.”

“They will have a lot of things they want to improve on. It will be a great contest, and we know they will bring their A-game.”

South Africa needs to beat one of the best to improve their T20 series record

Both sides last clashed in a bilateral T20 series in July 2022; England were the hosts then, and they came out on top with a 3-0 win. South Africa, on the other hand, outside reaching the two finals, has had its fair share of struggles in this format.

Since the 2023 World Cup, they have played a total of seven series’ and they have only managed to achieve a win percentage of 30.4%. In the 23 matches they have played, they have only managed to win seven, with five no results and eleven losses.

The 2-1 series win against Pakistan prior to the World Cup did however hand them a lot of momentum, and Dercksen hopes they will be able to carry the same momentum heading into this series, and they can use it to begin the road to the next World Cup in two years time.

“We would like to win the series; England is a quality opponent, and its going to be a good contest, and we would be looking to win it.”

“It will be our first time playing back home since the conclusion of the World Cup, and the team would definitely like to continue that momentum from the tournament into the series.”

“It has been wonderful for us to compete with the top sides in the world; the environment we have at the moment, the players, support staff, and coaches we have are all driven and very high performance focused.”

“It is just a lovely environment to be a part of, and hopefully we continue building and we can bring the World Cup back home.”