‘Had to take responsibility, happy it came off’ – Chloe Tryon

In the first one-day international of a five-match series against Bangladesh Women, South Africa posted 270, their highest total against that opposition.

They wrapped up a 106-run win in the game at Potchefstroom on Friday, 4 May, but the target for the rest of the games would be to wrap up wins quickly and emphatically, the hosts’ Chloe Tryon said.

South Africa had Bangladesh at 89/6 and 112/9, but were frustrated by a last-wicket stand of 52 between No.3 Fargana Hoque and No.11 Panna Ghosh. As many as nine bowlers were used before Mignon du Preez got the breakthrough, for her first ever wicket in 182 internationals.

“It’s a big boost to get to 270,” said Tryon. “We’ve still got to work … on just trying to just kill the game. We had them at six down and it just took too long to get those last four wickets.”

Tryon was named Player of the Match for an all-round performance. Her 65 off 42 balls lifted South Africa in a middle period where they lost wickets, and she came back to take 2/14.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work with the bat and ball, a lot of target bowling, a lot of hitting balls. I’m happy it came off today,” she said. “You had to take responsibility out there in the middle, especially at the last, (when the team was) losing wickets at regular intervals. I had to stay in, had to take the team to at least 250-plus.”

David Capel, the Bangladesh coach, said the players let themselves down on an excellent surface, firstly in allowing South Africa to get that many on the board, and then in only three players getting to double figures.

They began steadily enough with the bat, with the second-wicket pair getting to 68 in the 20th over. The coach was happy that they were not too far from the par score at that point, but rued that they didn’t show more intent against spin – an area the country should be strong at.

“We’re going to have to search a little bit for the positives,” he said. “I would say our fielding was below the standard at which we would have liked to perform. Ground fielding wasn’t good, we missed early chances.

“Our early seam bowling was good, but wasn’t supported very well with our fielding. So if you take the early chance, stop the couple of fours that go through early on, that can make a difference.

“We have game plans but we didn’t bowl to our game plans with the spin. Far too many short balls. And field placings were disjointed since we didn’t bowl to our game plans.”