Proteas’ batting woes bite ahead of Test
● Proteas women’s captain Laura Wolvaardt’s thoughts very quickly turned to the upcoming one-off Test with Australia as she acknowledged that her team — herself included — needed to be more consistent with the bat if they hoped to make a contest out of that encounter.
South Africa went down by 110 runs on the Duckworth Lewis Stern method in the final ODI against Australia at the North Sydney Oval yesterday. The tourists needed 278 to win after their nemesis of the last few weeks, Beth Mooney, produced another match-defining innings of 82 not out.
SA then lost four wickets in the first 11 overs before rain halted play in the 14th. A revised target of 238, which needed to be scored in 31 overs, was beyond them and they were bowled out for 127 in the 25th over with Australian leg-spinner Alana King taking 4/26, with three of those wickets coming in one over.
“We have to sort out a couple of things with the bat,” said Wolvaardt, with one eye already on the Test, which starts at the WACA on Thursday.
“We have been very inconsistent with the bat. In this game we lost our way early, especially in the power play against a moving ball. It’s been frustrating, especially knowing the potential we have with the bat.
“We’ve lacked someone in the top three to bat through. Beth has done that really well (for Australia). It was tough when she came in. The ball was moving around a lot but she stuck in there and got through. That is something we haven’t been able to do in this series.”
The Proteas SA’s problems start with Wolvaardt, who in the ODIs made scores of 4,0 and 3, which put her side under pressure every time, and led to starts in the power play in which they lost three wickets in both matches that they lost.
“It was not my best ODI series. I have to try and keep things as consistent as I can. Cricket is a funny game. If I do everything the way I normally do, it should come right,” she said.
Worryingly, two of her dismissals were caught in the slips, with the Australians tempting the drive, which is Wolvaardt’s favourite shot.
There was no rescue act from Marizanne Kapp yesterday, with the all-rounder, who had earlier taken 1/28 in nine overs, slapping a short ball to deep backward square leg to register a four-ball duck.
While the batting is concerning, there was optimism about the Proteas’ performances with the ball, especially the inclusion in the attack of 19-year-old Ayanda Hlubi and 21year-old Eliz-Mari Marx.
Hlubi — despite conceding four consecutive boundaries to yesterday’s player-of-thematch Tahlia McGrath — was somewhat unlucky that one of those shots, off the inside edge, didn’t go onto the stumps, while Marx did manage to claim the wicket of the Australian captain, Alyssa Healy, who scored 60.
“I’m very excited with what they bring to the team, they’ve been brilliant. It’s that cool, young energy they have and they bowl quickly. They’ll be options for the Test match,” said Wolvaardt.
The WACA match will be the Proteas’ first Test in two years. They drew the last one they played against England in Somerset in 2022, thanks to another Kapp special, when she made 150.
The Proteas have six uncapped players in their squad, with Wolvaardt, Sune Luus, Kapp, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jaftha, Anneke Bosch and Nonkululeko Mlaba survivors from the Somerset match. Chloe Tryon, who missed that encounter with an injury, is the other capped player in the Proteas squad. She was part of the 2014 team that lost to India in Mysore.