England versus The South African Squad – Women’s World Cup Starts

Silence please! The talking is over, for now at least, while England’s World Cup is about to begin. The bad news is, they face a challenging match with South Africa as their first rival. Fortunately, they start with a tough game opposing the Proteas. Success today might boost England's confidence right away and justify the careful optimism from their pre-competition talk.

Pre-Tournament Momentum

A superb victory over Australia in their previous practice game has increased that confidence, although the standout displays of Alice Capsey (88 not out) and Sarah Glenn (taking 5 wickets for 32 runs) presented Charlotte Edwards with a minor dilemma.

Edwards is a serial winner, so there’s no danger of the team having modest ambitions. However, looking broadly they are in the slightly unusual position where their tournament benchmark is quite obvious.

Tournament Expectations

Not making the last four could be a slight surprise, even allowing for the progress made by usual lower-ranked teams. Advancing to the ultimate game ahead of either Australia or India, the two clear favourites to lift the trophy, would be a serious achievement. And if England win it… we shouldn’t speculate further. It’s way too early for that sort of talk.

Today’s match begins at 10:30 AM British Summer Time.