NEITHER for the first time nor the last, women will solve a problem for men when the World T20 semifinals are played in Dhaka today.
Aaron Phangiso, in particular, should thank his lucky female stars if he gets a game having spent the entire group stage on the bench.
At 10.30am today, the SA women’s team will play England. At 3pm, the SA and India men’s teams clash.
Faf du Plessis’ team played all four of their group games in Chittagong, and he said yesterday that the women’s semi would be an important indicator of the approach his side would take into their showdown against the Indians – who will have better knowledge of the more spin-friendly conditions having played their group matches in Dhaka.
“The wicket at Dhaka is completely different to Chittagong,” said Du Plessis. “India are much more used to it than we are. We put in some hard practices this week on really abrasive surfaces and we over-practised against spin, where the ball was spinning too much.
“Because there is a game before us – the ladies game – we will assess how the wicket is playing. If there is excessive spin, we will look at the option of playing Phangi.”
Imran Tahir is the leading bowler among the four teams in the semifinals with 11 wickets at 9.18 and a decent economy rate of 6.31.
JP Duminy is SA’s second spinner, but the eight overs he has bowled in the tournament have gone for 73 runs, taking just one wicket.
But Duminy is SA’s second-highest runscorer at the WT20 after Hashim Amla. Dropping him for Phangiso would be folly. If Phangiso plays, Beuran Hendricks looks the most likely candidate to be left out.
That spin bowling is an unusually important part of SA’s arsenal in the tournament was emphasised when Shane Warne turned up at their net session on Wednesday and spent time with Tahir – the two were teammates at Hampshire – and bowling coach Allan Donald.
“It wasn’t our decision to ask Warne to come in,” said Du Plessis. “He wanted to bowl a bit and pitched up to bowl a few balls at us.
“I asked Imran about it and Warney just told him he’s been bowling well and to keep up the good work.”
But Warne won’t be able to help a defiant SA side, whose three victories in the event were all achieved by fewer than 10 runs, against an Indian team who have sailed into the semis with four big wins.
“We’ve played well as a team. We’ve had different guys performing in every game so we’re not relying on ,” said Du Plessis.
If his men win the T20, they might want to show their appreciation for the help they had from the SA women’s team by giving them some of their $1.1-million (R11-million) prize-money. That would be only fair considering the women’s champ earn just $70000 (R743000).
l Sri Lanka awaits the winner of the SA-India semifinal after sailing into the World Twenty20 final, beating holders West Indies by 27 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-ruined contest yesterday.
Chasing 161 for victory against the team they beat in the final of the 2012 event, West Indies were 80/4 in 13.5 overs when a hailstorm ended the game and a wet outfield prevented further action. Lahiru Thirimanne top-scored with 44 off 42 and Lasith Malinga took 2/5 off two overs to lead Sri Lanka to the win.