Proteas Women growing in confidence ahead of T20 World Cup

After beating India in the final of the Tri-Series, which also featured West Indies, in East London last week, the South Africans fell just 18 runs short of victory against 2009 champions England at the Coetzenburg Oval, in Stellenbosch on Monday. 

De Klerk, who starred with ball and bat with figures of 3/45 and a 50 not out, says they are certainly not short of confidence going into Friday's opening clash against Sri Lanka at Newlands.

"We come from East London, where it was quite tough to score runs and to beat India in those types of conditions in a final, I think, just shows the depth of this team and what we're capable of doing," said De Klerk.

"So, again, almost chasing 250 is really special. I do think it's going to give us a lot of confidence going into that first game and whenever we do face Australia or New Zealand as well."

The Proteas convincingly beat the Sri Lankans by eight wickets at last year's Commonwealth Games in England. 

And the 23-year-old all-rounder believes all they need to do is back themselves in front of the home support this Friday.

"Ja, I think it's going to be very similar to India and what we were facing in East London, we know they're going to throw a lot of spinners at us, but we've had a lot of prep with a lot of spinners playing India and West Indies in slow conditions," she added.

"So I think we have to take confidence from this game as well. I know it was a bit different but we need to be confident out there [and] back ourselves.

"I think there are a few players that have been in really good touch over the last couple of games, so we have to take that confidence into the game and just really back ourselves regardless of the opponent that we're getting."

The Proteas will have one more warm-up fixture against Pakistan at Boland Park in Paarl on Wednesday before they open the global showpiece two days later.