South Africa’s batting is starting to hit top gear at the business end of the World Cup
“I was really disappointed with the way I’ve performed recently,” du Preez, who had not crossed 20 in nine innings before the West Indies match, said. “I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had the backing from the whole team all the way through. That kind of helped a little bit just to ease the pressure, but from my point of view, I definitely wanted to contribute.”
“It’s about stepping up in big moments, and when the team needed me most – and I think even the other day against West Indies – I had a little bit of my belief back,” she said. “It was just good to finally contribute so close to the semi-finals. I think it’s not how you started the tournaments, but how you finish it.”
She acknowledged that she spent her first few innings in the tournament hanging back in the crease and adjusted to a more aggressive approach in the last two matches.
“What got me in trouble in the first few games was I felt like I got stuck at the crease. I’m really good when I use my feet and when I’m busy at the crease,” du Preez said. “I think I kind of lost that trying to just get myself in and I decided for the last bit I’m just going to actually have positive intent, whether that is good foot movement, good just putting the bowler under pressure.
“The ball didn’t go where I wanted, I was targeting straight over the bowler’s head and I dragged it a little. I had a little bit of luck on my side finally, I haven’t felt that I had luck throughout the tournament just yet”
Mignon du Preez, on the slice of good fortune against India
“It might not be about looking to hit it over the top but just to actually get to the ball and show good intent, and I think it definitely paid off. That was the mindset to not… just get to the ball and be positive, and I think it’s working for me at the moment.”
She ended up hitting it to long-on and was caught, but Deepti had overstepped, and gave du Preez and South Africa a match-winning lifeline. “The ball didn’t go where I wanted, I was targeting straight over the bowler’s head and I dragged it a little,” she said. “I had a little bit of luck on my side finally, I haven’t felt that I had luck throughout the tournament just yet.”
South Africa, some will argue, have had plenty of luck with last-over victories against Pakistan, England, New Zealand and India, all of which have shown their ability to hold their nerve under pressure. It was exactly that, which had failed them in the semi-final against England five years ago. On Thursday, they have an opportunity to play England in the semi-final again and du Preez believes everyone, including her, is ready. “We knew this was important for us going into the back-end of the tournament to get a bit of momentum,” she said. “And so we definitely wanted to play to our standards and do the best we can and I think we did just that today.”
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent