Women's Cricket World Cup: 5 Players to Watch in New Zealand as South Africa Chases Maiden World Championship

• The 12th ICC Women's Cricket World Cup begins on Friday morning in New Zealand as the eight best cricket teams on the planet race for glory
• Seven other participants will look to prise the trophy from the tight grasp of England, the four-time champions who won the tournament at home in 2017
• South Africa will look to deliver what has become a holy grail, as no women or men's team has ever been crowned the world champions

The 12th edition of the ICC Women's Cricket starts on Friday morning in New Zealand. The hosts have won the tournament on one occasion - 2000 - with four-time champions England defending a title they claimed in front of their home fans in 2017.

South African supporters will throw their weight behind their team fully, as they look to become the first senior team among the women and men to win a world championship. They will have to do so without captain and ace batsman Dane van Niekerk, who has been recuperating from injury.

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The Proteas lost two warm-up matches against India and England respectively, though not much can be read into these results. They go into the tournament as one of the lesser favourites, with Australia the out-rights, followed by the English.

AFP Sports released a list of five players it believes will have a say in where the title will go.

They are:

Shabnim Ismail, bowler (South Africa)

Ellyse Perry, all-rounder (Australia)

Amelia Kerr, batsman (New Zealand)

Bismah Maroof, batsman (Pakistan)

Shafali Verma, batsman (India)

Comeback kings: Proteas turn it around as they thrash New Zealand to square Test series

The South African men's national cricket team proved that it holds the unofficial title of the sport's "comeback kings"

After being thumped in the first Test by an innings just a week ago, they rose from the dead to inflict a heavy 198-run defeat on the world Test champions New Zealand

It was the second Test series in a row that the Proteas had come back from losing the first match to either win a series (vs India in January) or draw one, like against the Black Caps