The Proteas will be playing in a home semi-final for the first time, however the English are a tough nut to crack and are the favourites to advance to the final.

The Proteas captain, Suné Luus, said that tomorrow they have to be at their very best.

“It's always a great honour to be in a semi-final and I think that it was hard from the girls, so I am really proud of them,” said the skipper.

“We are also searching for that perfect game where all three aspects click and work together nicely.

“For tomorrow that is definitely something that we are going to focus on. It will be for the batting to work on our KPI's and for all the boxes to be ticked. As well as in the bowling and fielding departments.”

History is certainly not in favour of South Africa when it comes to semi-finals, however the national side will take confidence from their recent warm-up against England in Stellenbosch.

While England won the game by 17-runs, South Africa scored their most runs ever in a T20 International match. England posted 246/7 in their 20-overs and South Africa managed to score 229/9 in that match.

Friday afternoon’s historic semi-final at Newlands gets underway at 15:00. At 15:00 on Thursday afternoon the five-time champions Australia will face India at Newlands in the first semi-final.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport