Poor middle-over batting cost Proteas women in series loss to Pakistan

Proteas women’s captain Laura Wolvaardt highlighted poor middle-over batting as the main cause for their two defeats and a T20I series loss against Pakistan in Karachi on Sunday night.

The Proteas succumbed to a thrilling last-ball defeat against the hosts in Friday’s first match, before they were soundly beaten by seven wickets in Sunday’s second game, making Monday’s third encounter a dead rubber, before the sides clash in an ODI series.

In both games, the Proteas managed 150 fpr three batting first, despite getting off to strong starts, with the total proving to not be enough on both occasions. They would have needed another 10 to 15 runs in both matches.

“I think in both games we had a decent powerplay. Just in the middle phases against the spinners I think we are dotting up too much. We just need to rotate and get off strike as a batting unit a bit better and not let their spinners bowl as much at us (one batter) as they did,” explained Wolvaardt.

“Looking back now I think 10 more (runs) would have made us feel safer at the end there. But credit where it is due, Pakistan played a great game of cricket.

“I think they bowled really well in these conditions, slowed it down on a slower wicket and I didn’t think we executed as well as we could have with the ball.”

REFLECT ON THE POSITIVES

The Proteas will now try to take the positives out of the two losses and pick up a win in the third match so that they can head into the ODI series with some positive momentum.

“I think we have played good cricket in patches. It’s not all doom and gloom. We have had a few batters getting runs, Nadine (de Klerk) looked good (on Sunday) whacking a few at the end there. Bowlers like Aya (Khaka) bowled really well today,” admitted Wolvaardt.

“We still have to reflect on the positives. We’ve got a lot of T20 cricket coming up in the future, so we must take the positives and reset for the ODI’s to follow.”

Pakistan skipper Nida Dar was absolutely thrilled with the series win. She was proud of her team and very confident heading into the third T20I, quipping ‘why not’ when asked if they were targeting a series whitewash.

“I feel really good because we have finally won a series against South Africa after so long. It was very challenging for us, but we have that belief in ourselves that if we follow our processes and effort we could beat them. So it was a great win for us,” said Dar.