Proteas women look to improve their spin game

Women's Cricket

The Proteas are on the hunt for a second consecutive win when they take on Bangladesh in Match Two of their five-match Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s ODI series at Senwes Park on Sunday.

The hosts took the lead in the series after a comprehensive, 106-run triumph at the same venue on Friday.

While interim coach, Salieg Nackerdien is pleased with the result, he wants to see an improvement in the manner in which the batting unit play against spin. Bangladesh spinners, Nahida Akter (2/22), Fahima Khatun (2/53), Rumana Ahmed (1/38) and Salma Khatun (1/52) accounted for six of South Africa’s wickets in the opening match. Nackerdien hopes for a more a more proactive approach from his charges come tomorrow.

“I’m very impressed with the team’s performance yesterday,” he commented. “The batters, including Lizelle Lee and Dané van Niekerk did well up front and gave us a good start and when it looked as though we would struggle to reach 250, Chloe (Tryon) showed her experience and batted well with the tail to get us to 270. The bowlers also impressed, led by the captain. We executed majority of our plans well and did well to with by a margin of 100 runs plus.

“Of course there is always room for improvement and that’s what we’re striving to do. Bangladesh have got some quality spinners in their team and I think that will be the test for us in tomorrow’s game to see how much we have improved from the first one. We spoke in our team meeting before practice about how we want to go about playing spin and to be proactive against spin and really improve in that area. It will be key going forward in this series.”

Captain Dané van Niekerk echoed Nackerdien’s sentiments, also calling for a stronger show against the spin bowlers.

“Yesterday was a good first outing after couple of months off. It’s always nice to get off with a win, especially the way that we won,” she said. “I felt like we were very clinical (with the ball) even though at the back end, we struggled with the last wicket.

“Our batting was good but I know with the team I’ve got, we can do even better,” she continued. “Today’s practice was really about our approach when we face the spinners. Their (Bangladesh) spin (bowling) is really good, they bogged us down a bit but Chloe managed the tail really well and I can’t fault the way that they played.

“We want to make sure that we keep improving in that area with every match that passes and it all starts with executing our game plans for the spinners. Playing positively against them, with more ruthless intent is going to be key. The girls are really keen to put what they have worked on into action tomorrow and I’m looking forward to seeing watching them go.”

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