‘We’re here to win the World Cup,’ says Proteas leader Chloe Tryon

The Proteas women are gunning for World Cup glory as they head into their first match of the ICC Women’s World Cup against Bangladesh at the University Oval in Dunedin on Saturday morning (SA time).

Having reached the semifinals in the last edition five years ago where they were just edged by current champs England, the Proteas are looking to go all the way this time round.

“Our goal is to win this World Cup, we want to play and compete well and we are here to win,” said Proteas vice captain Chloe Tryon.

“We have worked really hard in the last five years since that semifinal and you can see all the hard work that has been put in on the field and behind the scenes and as a team we want to take it a step further this time.”

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The team head into the first match of their campaign off the back of a couple of warm up matches against India and England and although they unfortunately lost both, the time out in the middle was invaluable for them.

“The two games were really good, it was nice to get some time in the middle to try adapt to the conditions as much as we can. The last time we played here was two years ago so it was important to assess the wicket and see how it plays,” explained Tryon.

“From what I have seen I am expecting a lot of runs to be scored on these wickets, so it is going to be a challenge to be a bowler. We know that we have to get partnerships going and the longer you bat the easier it will get.

“So we really need to put our heads down and apply ourselves with the batting and as bowlers we have to bowl really good lengths, I think anything off the stumps will be easy to play off.”

With the first match against Bangladesh followed up by a clash against Pakistan, before they face some of the stronger teams in the competition, it gives the Proteas the perfect opportunity to get their campaign off to a confident start that they can build some solid momentum from.

“Every game we play here is like a final for us, so we have to play our best cricket against them to win on Saturday,” admitted Tryon.

“If we start off really well it will kick off our campaign, so we need to make sure we tick off Bangladesh and tick off Pakistan leading up to some really good games coming after that.”