Hilton Moreeng happy to win ugly as South Africa look to maintain unbeaten run

South Africa face New Zealand in Hamilton with three wins from their opening three matches despite not playing their best cricket

As we cross the halfway threshold in the 2022 Women’s World Cup group stage, only two teams remain unbeaten.

Unsurprisingly, Australia, the dominant side in ODI cricket for the past four-and-a-half years, have cruised through their opening four matches, holding on to defeat England by 12 runs in their tournament opener before brushing aside Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies.

The other unbeaten side is South Africa, with three wins to their name. Unlike Australia, they’ve had to battle hard for their victories, edging out Pakistan by six runs thanks to a death bowling masterclass from Shabnim Ismail before taking the game into the final over to chase down 235 against England.

Batting, in particular, has been a struggle for the Proteas. They’ve failed to pass 250 in an innings, posting 207 and 223 when batting first, and key batter Lizelle Lee is yet to fire, scoring just 11 runs.

And yet, despite not playing their best cricket, they’re sitting pretty in second position, which is all that matters to head coach Hilton Moreeng.

^{South Africa head coach Hilton Moreeng [Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images]}

"We haven’t played the kind of cricket we’ve been playing over the last year-and-a-half," he said. "Collectively, as a unit in all three departments, we haven’t actually fired as we would like to, especially by our standards.  We would love to get to a situation where all three are firing.

"The World Cup is very tough, but the bottom line is to make sure you get yourself the two points. As ugly as it may be and how tough it may be, at the end of the day, they make sure they stick together to get the required results."

However, despite his side’s blistering run of form in ODI cricket – South Africa are unbeaten since March 9,2021 – he’s unwilling to underestimate an experienced New Zealand side on home soil: "They are an all-round team, and they had a very successful series going into the World Cup against India.

"It’s not a team that you can see has a lot of weaknesses, they’ve got a wealth of experience in the changing room and players who have done it all. They play well as a unit and are playing on their own turf. It’s a must-win game for them, so it’s going to be very challenging.

"We understand as a team what’s going to come and [must] make sure we stay calm as a unit and then execute what we need to on the day."

The respect goes both ways, with New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine billing the match as a "real humdinger." And despite South Africa defeating them 3-0 in their most recent series, she is confident of pulling off a result.

"They’re an absolutely quality side," she said. "If you look at them with the ball – Ismail, Kapp, Khaka – they’ve got strengths all the way through the bowling line-up and with the bat as well. We know the quality of the side we’re going to take on but we also know that we’ve got some great match-ups.

"When we play our best cricket, we can beat anyone, so I think it’s going to be a real humdinger of a game. The wickets have been conducive to run-scoring which makes for entertaining cricket."

^{Devine identifed Marizanne Kapp as one of South Africa's dangerous players [Fiona Goodall/Getty Images]}

New Zealand have had a mixed tournament so far, bouncing back from their three-run defeat against West Indies with back-to-back wins against Bangladesh and India. However, in their most recent outing, they were bowled out for just 128 on their way to a 141-run defeat at the hands of Australia to leave their semi-final hopes in the balance.

Devine, however, just wants her team to enjoy playing a World Cup on home soil rather than getting caught up in the 'will they, won’t they' qualification hype.

"It’s not quite do or die just yet, but we know this game has some real significance for us," she said. "South Africa are playing well at the moment [but] the thing we can control is how we play, how we prepare and how we plan.

"We’ve had a bit of time off, we’ve regrouped, and we’re certainly looking forward to the challenge. We certainly want to win our remaining games and that starts [on Thursday].

"[But] it’s the same message it’s been throughout – have fun and enjoy the occasion. It’s a World Cup at home, it’s another opportunity to represent our country and we want to be playing with a smile on our face because we know we’ve played well in this tournament."