Christchurch, Mar 26 (IANS): South Africa all-rounder Chloe Tryon insists that her side will not be focusing on some players in the Indian team ahead of their clash in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup.
With South Africa already sealing their berth in the semi-finals, the match becomes extremely crucial for India to win if they are to seal a spot in the last-four stage.
"We're playing a team like India; they are all world-class players. If you look upfront, you got Smriti (Mandhana) upfront and then you try and get her wicket and then you've got Mithali (Raj) and Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) still around the corner. So, I don't think we'll be focusing on specific people. We will be just looking at our game plans and how we want to kind of bowl to them and bat against them and making sure that we're kind of ticking off those boxes," said Tryon in the pre-match virtual press conference.
Tryon also signalled big-hitting opener, Shafali Verma, as a big threat for South Africa. Coming into the playing eleven against Australia, Verma showed glimpses of form when she made 42 against Bangladesh.
"She has to bounce back some way and you expect it in the next game. She's a big threat, we've seen the kind of cricketer she is and how successful she can be. Once she gets going, she is kind of hard to stop; we've had the discussions. She's bound to bounce back and you can see she's hungry to make runs. For us, we just execute our plans against her and hopefully, she doesn't score any runs against us. But it's going to be a really good challenge for us."
Tryon also felt that tearaway pacer Shabnim Ismail will be a good match-up to counter Verma's big-hitting skills. "Shabnim has been fantastic for us. I love the fighting character that she is and she really just wants to take wickets and play really well. At the same time, it's a really good matchup."
"We know that she's going to want to take her wicket and Shafali is going to want to get runs against us. As long as Shabnim keeps her game plan and stays nice and calm, I'm sure that can happen. But that's going to be really good contest to see them go about it."