Cape Town - The Women’s Premier League may be the biggest money-spinner in the game, but Chloe Tryon was out shopping while the auction was happening to remain focused on the Proteas’ critical ICC Women’s T20 World Cup encounter against New Zealand.
It was only enroute to the Boland Park whilst on the team bus that the big-hitting right-hander was informed by her teammates that she would be on her way to Mumbai Indians for close on R660 000.
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Tryon’s purchase price is not close to her Proteas’ teammates Marizanne Kapp R3.2 million and Shabnim Ismail R2.1 million tags, but it remains a significant amount for the all-rounder who hails from Amanzimtoti.
It certainly helped that Tryon remained in her bubble for her national team needed all of her on Monday night in Paarl. The 29-year-old duly delivered with arguably her finest all-round performance in a Proteas’ shirt.
With Dane’ van Niekerk, who was the fourth South African to be picked up at the WPL auction, not in the Proteas line-up at this T20 World Cup, there has been extra responsibility placed on Tryon’s broad shoulders - both with bat and ball.
And with the Proteas’ precariously placed 46/3 in the seventh over, and having already lost the tournament opener to Sri Lanka, the pressure was never greater as the host nation’s World Cup hopes were hanging by the barest of threads.
Showing once more a greater sense of maturity, Tryon absorbed the pressure, formed a crucial match-changing partnership with Nadine de Klerk, and only departed prior to the final over for 40 off 34 balls that guided the Proteas to an eventual 132/6.
“We just kind of needed to take a little bit of responsibility, bat a little bit longer and create those partnerships that makes batting towards the end a little easier,” Tryon said after the 65-run victory.
“But I still felt being in at the back end, I thought we were 15 - 20 runs short, I needed to stay towards the end.”
With the Proteas’ total being just about par on a good - albeit offering the spinners significant purchase - Boland Park surface, the home team knew they needed to improve significantly on their dismal fielding performance in the tournament opener at Newlands.
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And they came out like tigers hunting in the night to suffocate the Kiwis with Sinalo Jafta much improved behind the stumps, Ayabonga Khaka executing a fine direct hit run out, and Nonkululeko Mlaba (3/21), Marizanne Kapp (2/13) and Tryon (2/12) delivering fine bowling performances.
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“We spoke about it after the Sri Lankan game. We sat up in the change room and we said, we'll leave it here. We have a quick turnaround. We know that we've got to go and make sure that going into the next game, we're doing the right things. And I think everyone came with the mindset of just working really hard," Tryon said after the 65-run victory over the White Ferns.
“Every bowler knew what they needed to do and you could see that fire burning in everyone that they wanted it so badly.
“If you looked at our tri-series before this, our fielding started off really well and we kind of let it slip towards the end. And then in the warm-up games as well, we still felt that we could have done a little bit more in the field.
"Especially in the Sri Lanka game, we had about 25 - 30 runs that went past us. So, we said, let’s just put our bodies on the line. It was just nice to see that everything came together.”
@ZaahierAdams