The North West Dragons women kept their unbeaten run in the 2018/19 season by clinching a tremendous title win at the CSA Senior Women’s National Week in Bloemfontein on Friday.
The Dragons beat Western Province by seven wickets in the final with Lizelle Lee hitting a commanding half-century to take her side to victory.
Tumi Sekhukhune also picked up 4/17 with a brilliant spell of economical bowling in the final. Western Province made 152 all out before NW reached their winning target on 153/3 with 19 overs to spare. According to NW Dragons women’s captain, Tazmin Brits, her team never lost a single T20 or 50-over game throughout the week, which is a record in itself.
“We put in a lot of hard work and trained hard for the past four months. We came here to make history and I am proud of the girls. Everyone knows their job and everyone contributes. There is a unity in our team,” said Brits who also contributed 46 with the bat in the final.
Francois van der Merwe, the head coach of the NW Dragons women, was delighted with their commanding performances during the week and noted that the team had not lost a competitive match in any format since the 2017 tournament.
“We are the current champions in the 20-over, 50-over and national week competitions. It’s unprecedented and these ladies deserve all the achievements. The National Women’s Week is the highlight of the year and it’s huge to win this tournament. We were well prepared beforehand and knew what we wanted to achieve. We were just better prepared than the other teams,” he said.
Van der Merwe added that the prestige has grown at North West Cricket with the Proteas women selectors keeping a regular eye on these talented women.
“We aim to create a platform for these ladies to play for the Proteas and be recognised on the international stage. Lizelle Lee is an example of this, having played in the Big Bash League in Australia,” added Van der Merwe.
“The ladies have the belief in themselves to play for South Africa and that puts us in a fantastic position to groom talent for the future. Our pipeline at youth level is also really strong,” he said.
