T20 World Cup wrap - Week 2

Well, that was great to hear that chat with Marizanne, and I mean, she's a stalwart of this South Africa side.

Um, I mean, very, very experienced, perhaps approaching the twilight of her career.

We never want to sort of age players or retire them early, but, um, but yeah, she's, she's been around a very long time and to, you know, her producer performance like that was, was really, uh, lovely to see.

Um, are we sort of seeing the, the l- last of, of Marizanne, or c- can we not write her off yet? What, what do you make of how she's playing and how much longer she might?

It's so hard to say, actually, because I know that her main goal for continuing now is to try and win a World Cup.

So South Africa have got as close as the final the last three times, and you get the feeling if they don't get over the line soon-ish, then it might be too late for Marizanne.

I also was very fortunate to catch up with her wife and her teammate, Dane van Niekerk, in Bristol, and I asked Dane, you know, "What was that like watching Marizanne? You must be so proud of her performance." It was really difficult for Dane because on the one hand, Marizanne was really ill, as she mentioned, before the game, and Dane described it in great detail on a piece we've just put up on Cricinfo's website.

On the other hand, Dane was watching Marizanne basically win the game, which was an incredibly proud moment.

And then if you can have three hands, she was also sat there padded up, waiting to go and bat.

[laughs] So, you know, Dane's not just her wife, she's not just her teammate, she's an active member of the South African squad who was, she, as she put it, shaking in her boots to have to go and potentially hit the winning runs, and was very relieved not to have to do that I get the feeling Dane is probably closer to the end than Marizanne.

It sounds as though Dane will take stock at the end of this tournament, and she's unsure about whether she'll continue or not.

I think Marizanne honestly will go to 2029.

I think a one-day World Cup, a 50-over World Cup is really important.

The big consideration, of course, is her health, because she does have a, a condition that affects her breathing, her heart rate sometimes, and she was pretty ill before that India game.

You could actually see it when they sang the national anthems.

She, she didn't look herself.

But hey, listen, if she's not looking herself and she's out there taking wickets early on and crafting an innings of such immense quality, I've never seen a team chase at 10 runs an over for 10 overs in the women's game.

I think it's a, it's a complete change to what we're used to and, and what we think is possible.

And she's just a superstar.

She's definitely the best South Africa have had, and watching her, you know, then she's such a softie afterwards.

So it's such an interesting Jekyll and Hyde that Marizanne does.

But it was incredible to be there.

You could see even Amol Muzumdar, the Indian coach, was such ...

He had such great words, and he was so in awe of what Marizanne had done that I don't think anyone begrudges her the success, because she's just been around for so long.

Oh, no, not at all.