Proteas’ Kapp wants more Test matches played in women’s cricket

JOHANNESBURG – Fresh off her sparkling innings of 150 in the first innings of the one-off Test against England at Taunton, Marizanne Kapp says that playing the format more often would grow the game.

The 32-year-old joked that at her age, it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to play more often on a personal note, but that she would still like to see it happen.

“Honestly at the age where I’m at now, it probably wouldn’t be the best decision; but I definitely feel like if we want to grow women’s cricket even more, it’s definitely needed. Out there, you can try things and learn so much about yourself, so I would definitely like to see women’s cricket play a lot more Tests.”

To date, only four nations have ever played Test matches in women’s cricket – Australia, England, India and South Africa – with fixtures few and far between. Prior to day one on Monday, the last time the Proteas played the game’s longest format was in 2014, when they lost to India by an innings and 34 runs.

Since that disastrous display eight years ago, only two players have remained in the starting 11 as the South African side featured nine debutants. Their inexperience showed as impatience and inexperience saw them languishing with the score on 45/4 when Kapp walked out to bat against England on Monday.

Kapp hit the highest-ever score by a South African as she helped her team to 284 all out by the close of play.

While she admitted to feeling nerves during her record-breaking knock: “I’ve always enjoyed my batting. I just feel like at times it’s so difficult to focus on both bowling and batting, so I feel like one always takes preference. I’ve been working with some specialist coaches as well, so that’s really helped me on this journey and I think the confidence is growing and that’s probably why I’m starting to play a lot better,” Kapp said.

Kapp added that her special innings was probably going to be the highlight of her career.