Women’s Proteas working out the kinks, says coach Moreeng

While he was happy with what he saw in the last two series, Proteas Women coach Hilton Moreeng says they can still improve in the T20 format with the World Cup in Bangladesh only a year away.

After the first three matches of the short-format series were abandoned in East London, the last two games in Benoni saw the series end in a stalemate after the sides traded wins.

The Proteas will go back to the drawing board to see where they can tighten up their performances before welcoming Bangladesh to South Africa for three T20 internationals and a three-match ODI series in December.

Moreeng said it was important that they work out any kinks, with an eye on adequately preparing for the global showpiece in September and October 2024.

“It is a format we feel we can improve in. There are certain areas we need to work on,” he said in his post-match briefing on Sunday.

“It is good to see how the batting is improving with every game we play, and what we couldn’t execute with the ball yesterday [Saturday], we put plans in place to see if we could get better today [Sunday].

“It was a better display of skill execution as far as bowling is concerned and even the fielding was much better than what we had on Saturday.

“So we are slowly improving in this format and we feel we can continue to build, and where opportunities come for us to give younger players an opportunity and rotate the squad better.”

He said Nadine de Klerk and Masabata Klaas had contributed well with the ball, despite not having as much game-time as they would have liked.

“It shows a lot of growth [on their part]. They’ve always had more senior players bowling and I think the two players always found themselves on the bench because of the qualities that other bowlers have brought to the side.

“However, with the last two tours they’ve had opportunities to start.

South Africa posted 155/5 in their 20 overs on Sunday, with Tazmin Brits top-scoring with 45 off 38 balls.

New Zealand responded with 144/8. Klaas (3/26) and De Klerk (3/24) were the Proteas’ chief wicket-tackers.