With the series wrapped up, the Proteas women’s goals for the last two matches against India are to maintain momentum and fix their fielding as they cast an eye towards the World Cup.
“We need everything to come together,” said all-rounder Chloe Tryon ahead of Saturday’s fourth T20 International at the DP World Wanderers.
“We haven’t played the perfect game yet.”
It’s been a superb turnaround for the Proteas after they were hammered in New Zealand, winning only two out of seven matches on that tour. Their performances Down Under, clearly still linger with the players, who have sought confidence in what is a big examination for them before the global showpiece in England in June.
“Our fielding is probably an area we can work on. The good thing with playing India, is we’re not fielding well, but we’re still winning matches. These are still two big games coming up; if we can tighten up on those things it will give us confidence going into the World Cup,” said Tryon.
South Africa have dropped catches, knocked the ball on and miss-fielded on the boundary, in all three matches. It’s an area of the game which has been messy and was the topic of plenty of talks internally since Wednesday’s nine-wicket victory.
“We saw how much the dropped catches cost us in New Zealand but we have to continue to have a positive mindset, we are not a bad fielding side,” said Tryon.
“I think we are getting into bad positions. It’s about our mindsets, you must want the ball. We can’t be tentative, we need to be braver and put our bodies on the line. We need to hold ourselves accountable. Going into the World Cup fielding will be important.”
Tryon, like everyone else, has delighted in watching Laura Wolvaardt bat, with the record-setting hundred on Wednesday, one of the South African captain’s finest performances in the T20 format. “I was telling her that I’d like to take what she’s having,” said Tryon.
“She was having so much fun. She’s trying to compete with us big dogs, because she’s hitting the ball really far.”
Wolvaardt and her opening partner, Sune Luus, have been two of the dominant figures in the series, with century stands in the last two matches — including a record 183-run partnership on Wednesday, the highest for any wicket by a South African pair.
“We’ve developed a bit of pad rash,” Tryon joked about the rest of the Proteas batting unit. Wolvaardt and Luus have faced a combined 221 balls in the series and only four other batters have gone to the crease in the first three matches. “That is a good thing, because the top order is scoring runs. It has been special to watch how Sune and Wolvie have performed up front.”
Tryon said there’d been no talk about the possibility of switching around the batting order for the last two matches. “What the coach has said is that we are starting from zero again. We know how strong this Indian team is.”
TimesLIVE
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