Mandla Mashimbyi warns against complacency against Netherlands

South Africa is heavily expected to win the clash in Bristol, with the Dutch one of only two Group A sides yet to pick up a win at the competition. Mashimbyi’s team on the other hand comes on the back of a big 6-wicket win over India, and he implored them to bring the same intensity to this game.

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"The only surprise I would be weary of is the complacency we bring as a team to this match. If we are complacent then I would be really surprised because every game is important for us now. We can not drop our energy, the intensity, we should have the right intensity to make sure that we dominate the game," said Mashimbyi.

He added that they want to play an aggressive brand of cricket, especially with the bat, something he believes they have not yet achieved in the three matches played so far.

"I think we just need to focus on how we play cricket. Which is this aggressive brand of cricket, which we haven’t been doing in the past few games - we are still working toward putting together that complete performance from a batting point of view. Hopefully in the next two games we will get the confidence we need as a batting unit," added Mashimbyi.

The win against the Indians was a historic one for the Proteas Women, where they successfully chased over 150 runs for the first time at the T20 World Cup. Mashimbyi says he was actually very calm throughout the chase, and always believed they’ll get over the line.

"I was pretty confident to be honest with you, because I always believed we needed a partnership - Kapp and Brits put in a good partnership to make sure that we cross the line. Because the game was not too far away from us, we just needed one big over and we were back in contention. So I was just waiting for that over to be honest with you, I was pretty calm. If anything, I was probably more nervous against Pakistan," he expressed. 

One of the key players in that innings was Tazmin Brits, who had not featured in the first two matches against Australia and Pakistan, but put together a 91-run partnership with Marizanne Kapp. Mashimbyi revealed that Brits has been hard at work at training to improve her contribution to the team.