South Africa go back to basics to find winning formula

Keeping it simple was the key for South Africa as they beat New Zealand by 65 runs in a must-win ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 clash.

The hosts had fallen to a narrow defeat to Sri Lanka in their opening match and another loss to New Zealand would have left them with a mountain to climb to reach the semi-finals.

However, despite a slow start with the bat, they were able to make 132 for six batting first and then produced some sensational bowling to cruise to their maiden win of the campaign.

Chloe Tryon was the star of the show, cracking 40 to help the team recover from 55 for four, before following that up by taking two for 12 with the ball as the White Ferns were skittled for just 67.

And the all-rounder explained that the tactic from the hosts was all about keeping it simple.

"We spoke about doing the basics right," said Tryon.

"Get somebody from the opening four or five back to the end and get us to a score of about 140.

"So it was just the basics, we talked about the basics after Sri Lanka.

"I feel like we have been batting really well as a unit, and we had not started well in the tournament, so going into this game we knew it was a must-win and we wanted to get those basics right."

Meanwhile, a frustrated Sophie Devine admitted a total of 67 was nowhere near good enough as the White Ferns fell to their second successive defeat.

South Africa were excellent with the ball, with opening bowler Nonkululeko Mlaba, but even so, Devine, who top-scored with 16, was frustrated as her team were bowled out for their lowest ever total at an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, lowering the mark that had been set in their opening loss to Australia.

"I have said before about the embarrassment, that is not good enough for an international cricket side, and I take a lot of that as captain for how I lead this team, it is not good enough," said Devine

"I certainly thought it was a target we could reach, obviously we would have to bat well against a quality bowling line-up.

"It is always difficult when you lose that many wickets in the powerplay, but I am not sure too many words can describe the disappointment.

"I think you have got to be brave in positions like that, we spoke about it after the Australia game, that we would rather go down swinging than go back into our shells.

"We probably did that again tonight, which is disappointing, we have got to find out why that is happening.

"You can't do that, especially at World Cups, so those are some of the discussions we are going to have to have because I know we have got the skill, and we work bloody hard as a team.

"It is not the effort, it is how we are putting it out there on the park, it is tough."