Key players: South Africa
Star of the showName: Dane van Niekerk
Role: Captain/all-rounder
T20Is: 69
Batting stats: Runs – 1505; Average – 28.94; 50s – 9; Best – 90*
Bowling stats: Wickets – 49; Average – 22.73; Economy rate – 5.62; Best – 4/17
Still only 25, van Niekerk is her country's leading run-scorer and joint-second top wicket-taker in Twenty20 International cricket. If you add the responsibility of captaining a youthful side to what's expected from her with both bat and ball then you can see how important it is for her to perform if South Africa are to succeed in this tournament.
Van Niekerk is a genuine match-winner with both disciplines. On wickets that are expected be particularly receptive to spin bowling, her leg-spin will be a handy asset for her side, particularly in the middle overs. At the 2014 ICC Women's World T20, van Niekerk shared a 163-run opening partnership with Lizelle Lee against the tournament hosts, Bangladesh. That partnership shows just how destructive she can be with the bat as well.
She was visibly distraught when South Africa lost by two wickets to England in the semi-final of the ICC Women's World Cup 2017 and this year she has all the tools at her disposal to atone for that agonising defeat in style with a tournament victory in the Caribbean.
"It’s well-deserved for women's cricket and hopefully we can do justice to the tournament" – Dane van Niekerk on ICC Women's #WT20 2018 being a standalone event.
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) November 3, 2018
READ ⬇️https://t.co/0LwPlX0NGa pic.twitter.com/tm2kXURTFT
One to watch
**Name:**Laura Wolvaardt
**Role:**Top-order batter
**T20Is:**10
**Batting stats:**Runs – 195 ; Average – 21.66; 50s – 1; Best – 55*
Wolvaardt has been turning heads for a while now, and the scary thing is that she is still just 19 years old. In 2016, she became South Africa's youngest centurion – across men's and women's cricket – in international cricket when she scored a ton in a one-day international against Ireland, and a year later racked up 149 against the same opposition.
She hasn't yet experienced quite the same success in T20I cricket, but her T20I career is only 10 games old. She's already shown that she's in decent touch, scoring 42 against India in a tournament warm-up match and South Africa will be hoping that she can carry that form into the tournament.
Her skipper, van Niekerk, has commented on the "fearlessness" Wolvaardt and her fellow youngsters have brought into the side going into the tournament.