Proteas Women’s coach Mandla Mashimbyi has warned his team against any form of complacency when they face off against the Netherlands in a crucial ICC Women’s T20 World Cup clash in Bristol on Thursday.
The Proteas are coming off a high after beating India in their last match, but now they must maintain their momentum against a Dutch side that has lost three matches in a row.
“The only surprise that I would be wary of is the complacency we bring as a team to this match,” Mashimbyi said.
“If we are complacent, then I’ll be really surprised because every game is important for us now. So we cannot drop our energy, our intensity.
“We need to make sure that we bring the right intensity for us to actually be in a position to dominate the game.”
Mashimbyi also does not want his team to focus on the opposition, but instead to improve their batting efforts over the next two matches.
“I think we just want to focus on how we want to play cricket, which is obviously this aggressive brand of cricket,” he said.
“We haven’t been doing that in the past few games, and we’re still obviously working towards a complete performance from a batting point of view.
“And hopefully, maybe in the next two games, we’ll get the confidence needed for us to make sure that when we go through, we are where we need to be as a batting unit.”
One positive to emerge on the batting front has been the return of opener Tazmin Brits. Despite being a stellar performer for the Proteas in major tournaments over the last few years, Brits was left out of the starting XI for the opening two matches in the UK.
Brits, though, was recalled for the last game against India in place of the axed Sune Luus and made an immediate contribution with a valuable 40 during the successful run chase.
Mashimbyi believes it’s due to the hard work the veteran opener has been putting in behind the scenes at training.
“She’s been working for the past few months now since New Zealand. There are a couple of things that we picked up that we felt were going to be essential for her to really push up her batting strike rates and average in white-ball cricket. So we just put in some work with regards to that.
“It’s paid dividends now, and still you’re sitting there and you’re going, ‘There’s more that she can actually do.’
“But most of the time it’s actually just mental things that we need to get over. Our players realise that they need to conquer themselves first for them to conquer the world. And that’s what it’s about.
“It’s just putting in the work and you try within yourself every day and make sure that you improve all the time.”
