It is do or die as Proteas take on New Zealand in Women’s T20 World Cup

It is essentially a do or die game for the Proteas women’s team as they take on New Zealand in their second match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at Boland Park in Paarl on Monday night (7pm start).

After being shocked by Sri Lanka in their tournament opener at Newlands on Friday night, the Proteas can’t afford another loss, as that could end their chances of reaching the competition semifinals.

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With just two teams from their pool of five qualifying for the semis, a loss against New Zealand would mean that they would have to win their final three games to stand any chance of making the knockouts, which includes a game against the number one team in the world and defending champs Australia.

“It is obviously a very important game against New Zealand coming up. You can’t take any team lightly as has been shown. So it’s all about doing the right things on the field and let the result take care of itself,” said Proteas vice-captain Chloe Tryon in a pre-match press briefing on Sunday.

Reflecting on the Sri Lankan defeat, Tryon admitted that the team, particularly the batting unit, was just not up for the match, but she believes it was just a once off poor performance and that they can get right back to winning ways.

“It was a difficult game to lose the way we did. As a group we are trying not to look into that result too much. We have been a quality side and playing really good cricket,” said Tryon.

“As a batting unit that one innings doesn’t define us. We just have to sort of park that result. We just need to improve our basics. I didn’t feel we did the right things as a batting unit. We had no partnerships and no one really putting up their hand.

“So for us it’s just making sure that we do those basics right. I think if we can play our brand of cricket and keep ticking those boxes we can come up with the win.”

Tough start

New Zealand have also had a tough start to the tournament with them comprehensively thrashed by Australia in their opener on Saturday night and they will be eager to bounce back with a win against the hosts.

They will be looking to their most experienced player and captain Sophie Devine for inspiration and the Proteas will need to keep her in check if they want to emerge with a positive result.

“You don’t want to take a player like her (Devine) lightly. She’s a very disruptive player and we know how she can take a game away from a team the longer she bats,” said Tryon.

“We have obviously done our homework on her to make sure we do the right things. Once she gets going it is quite hard to stop her.

“She is a world class player, but they have a quality line-up so we aren’t only focused on her. (Suzie) Bates has been hitting the ball really well and they have Amelia Kerr coming in and Maddie Green as well, so we have to have our plans for all of them.”