South Africa look to right New Zealand wrongs against India

Omens are, almost by definition, mysterious. What happened between Harmanpreet Kaur's and Laura Wolvaardt's press conferences at Kingsmead on Thursday was a case in point.

As Wolvaardt shifted her chair closer to the microphones, the bottles on the table toppled over. They were quickly righted. But a thought took hold… Was that an omen?

That South Africa would topple opponents they have beaten only six times in 19 T20Is when the five-match series starts in Durban on Friday? Or that the home side would right what went wrong in New Zealand, where they lost six of eight white-ball games?

To accomplish the first, they will have to closely examine the latter. Had they?

"We've been trying to fix things," Wolvaardt said. "I think we've identified where we went wrong.

"With the ball it was in our execution. The plans were there, but we didn't bowl to our field placings. These last few days it's been about being precise—land the ball in the areas that we want to for longer periods.

"With the bat we've got to be more proactive—rotate the strike better, have a couple of different shots up our sleeve. Also in the last few days, we've been precise about the shots we want to play and we've drilled them hard. I think there was a positioning thing with the bat as well. Some of us maybe lose our shapes just a little bit. We've zoned in on that."

There was acres of space for improvement. Nine of the top 10 scores across both formats were made by New Zealanders. Seven of South Africa's eight bowlers in the T20Is conceded more than eight runs an over, compared to only one of New Zealand's seven.

Wolvaardt's comments sound like progress after coach Mandla Mashimbyi's assessment post-tour: "The gaps we had were in concentration or awareness. It costs you dearly… That's what we need to brush up on and make sure that against India we leave no stone unturned."

But the Indians won't fall easily. The teams are ranked closely—India third, South Africa fifth—but a closer look exposes disparities.

Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, and Jemimah Rodrigues are all in the top 10 batting rankings. Wolvaardt is the only South African firmly on the list, though Tazmin Brits shares 10th with Rodrigues.

Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, and Arundhati Reddy are all among the top 10 bowlers. The closest South African is Nonkululeko Mlaba at 11th.

South Africa's home-ground advantage could prove theoretical. Durban—host for the first two matches—is home to most of the country's population of south Asian heritage, meaning Wolvaardt's team can't bank on undivided home support.

"We did speak about it, that it could be more of an away crowd than a home crowd," she said. "But it will be awesome just to have people at the game. I think it'll be a cool mix of South African supporters and Indian fans. It'll create more of a buzz than maybe what we're used to at home games.

"The last time we played against them we had 60,000-odd Indian fans in the stands. It couldn't get worse than that."

That was in the World Cup final in Navi Mumbai last November, when India won by 52 runs. The start of another World Cup—the T20I version—looms in England in 58 days' time. If you look hard enough, there's probably another omen in there somewhere.