Proteas Women all-rounder Chloe Tryon says their poor execution with the ball cost them dearly in the second T20 International against England in Benoni.
England lead the three-match series 2-0 following their 36-run victory at Willowmoore Park on Wednesday.
The third and final encounter will be played at SuperSport Park in Centurion tomorrow (6pm start).
The visitors lived up to expectations, and they have once again secured another series win against the South Africans.
Both sides had something to prove coming into the series with the aftermath of the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
For England, the win will surely put an end to the widespread criticism following their costly six-wicket loss against the West Indies, which saw them exit the tournament for the first time in the group stages since 2010.
With the standards they set, it is still within them to go hard for a clean sweep when they take to the field tomorrow evening.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s achievements in reaching two consecutive T20 World Cup finals were always not going to be enough to beat the second-ranked side if they didn’t play their best cricket in the three-match series.
The final encounter will, however, offer them another chance to secure a rare victory against the former world champions.
At 30, Tryon has played over a century of T20I matches and looked on as another series against England was lost.
The right-handed batter believes they could have done better to restrict England to a smaller total than the 204/4 they got in the end.
The South Africans ended on 168/6 in their knock, with Tryon scoring 30 off 24 balls.
None of the SA bowlers conceded fewer than nine runs per over, with Tryon going for 36 runs in her four overs, while the only wicket-takers were Nadine de Klerk (2/36 in four) and Ayanda Hlubi (2/19 in two).
Post Match Thoughts💭
— Proteas Women (@ProteasWomenCSA) November 28, 2024
Hlubi chats to us about her bounce-back after the 1st game and her performance in the 2nd T20i against England.🏏🔥#AlwaysRising #WozaNawe#BePartOfIt #SAvENG pic.twitter.com/zx7VEoY9eH
“As a bowling unit, we didn’t bowl as well as they did,” Tryon told the media.
“We weren’t hitting our straps. We kept bowling fourth and fifth stumps, and with world-class players like Danni Wyatt-Hodge (who scored 78 off 45 balls) upfront, I felt we missed our margin.
“The margin for error is really small in Benoni, especially with such a good wicket and a good outfield, but as a bowling unit, we weren’t at our best on the night.
“I felt they kept the stumps in play, and they had a lot of change-ups as well.
“But if you look at our percentage on the stumps, it probably wasn’t our best, and it just came down to execution.
“I thought it was going to be a good wicket throughout. I expected the ball to come on a bit better batting second.
“We felt 160 to 170 was going to be a really good total. The wicket is really good here, and the ball travels.”
Despite their recent achievements in ICC tournaments, the Proteas have now lost four series, drawn three and beat Pakistan 2-1 before the World Cup.
Post-match with Faye😁
Faye Tunnicliffe shares her thoughts on being back in the team, and how the players can improve moving forward.🇿🇦🏏#AlwaysRising #WozaNawe#BePartOfIt #SAvENG pic.twitter.com/g0iBWUARXS
Tryon believes a lot of it has to do with the growth of the game in the recent past.
“I don’t think it’s a concern. We want to be winning every series. I just feel like the games we have played and lost, we weren’t at our best.
“T20 cricket is really tough, and I think the game has grown so much.
“We are allowed to have bad games, if you can say that, but we have to learn from them and find ways of winning series going forward.”