Proteas women to analyse deficiencies ahead of ODI series against Pakistan

The Proteas women will be looking to analyse the deficiencies in their game that saw them succumb to a three-nil series whitewash against Pakistan in their T20I series, ahead of the three match ODI series getting under way on Friday.

All three games were tightly contested and decided in the final over each time, with the hosts emerging victorious on each occasion for a famous series win.

The Proteas now have to try and fix their problems as fast as possible so that they can try and bounce back with a positive showing in the ODI’s.

“There were certain parts of our game that were good and others that weren’t, so that is stuff we will have to analyse and see which phases of the game we can do better in so that we can come back with better plans for the ODI’s,” admitted Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt.

“It was a pretty tough series overall. It was very frustrating to come close in all three games and be on the losing side each time.

“I think Pakistan played really well overall. They played the conditions well and rotated strike better than us and they made it hard for us to hit boundaries so they also bowled well.”

In the final match on Monday night Pakistan managed 150/5 batting first, the third score in a row of 150, after the Proteas had scored 150/3 batting first in the first two games, which the hosts managed to chase down.

This time the Proteas were tasked with chasing down the score and were well on target thanks to a career best 72 off 54 balls from Wolvaardt at the top of the order, only for them to fade badly at the death to fall short on 144/5.

“In all three games they managed to hold their nerve at crucial times much better than we did,” explained Wolvaardt.

“They stayed in their chases a lot better than we did, especially today we let it slip. I think a couple of overs before the death we had a few overs that let us down and left us with too much work to do at the end.”

Wolvaardt should be happy with her own performance after she was named player of the match for her top effort in a losing cause, and was named player of the series after managing scores of 44 and 41 in the first two games.

The highlight of the series was undoubtedly her form and strong opening partnerships with Tazmin Brits, who managed scores of 78, 46 and 18 in the three games, and they will look to continue that in the ODI’s.

“The first two games I would have liked to bat at a bit of a higher strike rate. I’m not too sure what it was today but it’s something that I am trying to improve as an opening batter, which is to start the games off a bit better,” said Wolvaardt.

“I think Taz and I had better powerplays than we have had in the past. So it is a step in the right direction. But it was hugely frustrating not to get over the line having batted for so long and being the set batter at the end there.”