ST LUCIA – Proteas women’s vice-captain Chloe Tryon is pleased with the progress the team has made in their build-up to the ICC Women’s World T20.
They convincingly beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their tournament opener at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia on Monday and Tryon believes that the preparation is beginning to fall in place as planned.
South Africa’s next assignment is against the hosts and defending champions West Indies on Wednesday (2am Thursday, SA time), a match that will be extra special for the all-rounder as it will mark her 50th T20 international for South Africa.
She said she hopes it will be another successful outing for them and expressed some ambitions for her own future performances for the team.
“I’m excited to get my 50th (cap) tomorrow,” she commented. “It’s been a dream come true, from a really young age I’ve wanted to play for my country so to be able to get my 50th and at a World Cup is really good. I’m really excited about the challenge tomorrow, we’re playing the hosts so it’s going to be a good, exciting match.
“I’d like to make my first 50 and go beyond that, I haven’t made one in T20 international cricket yet so it’s something I do want to tick off the list. I hope that when I do get the opportunity in the middle that I’m able to take the team over the line, but with the quality batters that we have, I almost also don’t want it to get to a point where I’m needed, we’ve got such great firepower up front.
“I do want to be a match-winner though. It’s been frustrating because it’s always felt like when I get to my 20s and 30s I just lose my wicket so I’ve been working hard on working myself in and getting the team over the line. I want to play smarter and take more responsibility in the middle.”
Protea women skipper Dane van Niekerk congratulates vice-captain Chloe Tryon after she captured a wicket. Photo: Frikkie Kapp/BackpagePix
The quick turn-around time between matches for the Proteas saw more frustration for them when their practice session was rained out before the players could even pad up. It’s a situation that they are beginning to get used to after only been able to fit in one 40-minute training session since landing in St Lucia six days ago.
The vice-captain said while it was not ideal, the team have opted to control what they can and be as mentally prepared for each match as possible. She was equally pleased with the manner in which the team went about their previous match.
“It’s been a bit frustrating, but it’s something that we can’t control,” Tryon shrugged. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get a practice in today but the plans are really good. We learned a lot from the last game.
"It was nice that we could build a good partnership with the bat especially with the bowlers being so outstanding at the moment. So far, everyone is in a really good space and we know that we have to play our best cricket tomorrow against the West Indies.
“It’s so good to watch Shabs (Shabnim Ismail) and Kappie (Marizanne Kapp) bowling up front.
"They are the best pace bowling pair in the world and they showed us why yesterday. They were also having a really good time of it and it showed and that’s what you want to see from your seniors. It was really exciting to see the captain (Dané van Niekerk) and Marizanne (Kapp) go out there and play sensible cricket with the bat.
"They rotated the strike well and played the conditions really well. There are a lot of positives that we can take away from that game and put that all together for tomorrow.”
While Ismail and Kapp shone with the ball in hand, a shadow on the bowling unit’s performance was the 24 runs in extras conceded to help Sri Lanka reach their eventual total of 99/8 at the end of their innings. Tryon said it is definitely an area that they want to address immediately and resolve because left that way, it has the potential to harm the team in future.
“It was a bit disappointing and I know as part of the bowling unit that they were upset about those extras especially because that falls under the things that we can control as a team,” she explained.
“Those 20-odd runs can make a big difference to a scoreboard so it was good to see the captain addressing it straight after the innings. I know that tomorrow we’re going to come out and do much better.”
Chloe Tryon in action with the ball at the Diamond Oval, Kimberley in 2016. Photo: Frikkie Kapp/BackpagePix
Commenting on facing West Indies at home, she said;
“They feed off the crowd really well but we know that we’ll have to cut that out and focus on our own game. We just want to go out there and do a good job and tick the next game off our list. We’re just staying in our own space at the moment and working on enhancing the positives.”
When asked about her ultimate hopes for the team in this tournament, Tryon’s response was immediate and unequivocal.
“We want to win the trophy, of course, I don’t think there’s anything less than that. We owe it to ourselves. We’ve got a really strong team and a talented group of girls and it’s high time we pull off something of this scale. We know that we’ve got it in us,” she concluded."