Proteas must be sharper, says De Klerk, after slipping against England

Having been edged by England in the first T20 International, the Proteas women will need to tighten up in all areas of their game if they want to win the series, all-rounder Nadine de Klerk admits.

After being sent in to bat first in East London on Sunday, the Proteas racked up 142/5. In response, England reached 143/6, picking up a four-wicket victory with four balls to spare.

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While six of the seven Proteas batters who stepped up to the crease contributed double figures, none of them managed to really kick on, though they were boosted by an unbroken 42-run stand for the sixth wicket between Nadine de Klerk (29 not out) and Annerie Dercksen (26 not out).

Eliz-Mari Marx was the best of the SA bowlers, taking 3/19, while De Klerk delivered a solid all-round effort, returning 2/20, but they struggled to contain the tourists at the death.

“I think we played pretty well for 35 of the 40 overs, to be honest, but we’ve played a lot here in East London and we knew it was a 180 wicket, so when we almost got 150 we felt we were in the game,” De Klerk said.

“I think we bowled really well but we lost it towards the middle-back end a bit with a few extras and maybe a few misfields and those sorts of things.

“But we have a pretty young bowling attack and we’ve just got to absorb the pressure and take the learnings from this game.”

Bigger partnerships

If they hoped to hit back, De Klerk felt building partnerships would be key in the second match of the T20 International series to be played in Benoni on Wednesday.

“From a batting point of view we probably didn’t have enough partnerships (in East London). I think we lost a lot of wickets in clusters, and going into the next game we all know T20 games are about partnerships, especially on a tricky wicket,” De Klerk said.

“You need partnerships and you need batters towards the back end and we probably didn’t have enough of that.”