Abrahams urges Proteas Women to show boldness, bravery on West Indies tour

THE Proteas Women won just a single match on the recent tour of Sri Lanka, having been beaten twice by India Women and once by the hosts.

However, from the batting point of view, the South Africans made a statement, producing two 300-plus totals during the trip.

The side registered five half-centuries and two centuries, with Tazmin Brits, Chloe Tryon and Annerie Dercksen the notable stars with bat in hand.

Moreover, the side introduced two young batting prospects, Karabo Meso and Miané Smit, who have been making rounds with big runs in domestic and Under-19 cricket.

“I reflect quite positively on the Sri Lanka tour in terms of posting those 300-plus scores,” Proteas Women batting coach Baakier Abrahams told Independent Media.

“I think that’s a third 300-plus score in the last 12 months, and to me it shows that the work that the ladies have been putting in over the last 12 months is coming to fruition in terms of our style of play.

“With the skill set development, we were able to do that over long periods of time, and then also our mindset of wanting to play a positive brand of cricket, getting to those totals.

“Our top-order didn’t really fire, but we were still capable of doing that.

“So, it shows that there’s still a lot more in the tank that we can achieve, and we’re going to be working quite hard to be putting more of those totals up.”

While senior player Chloe Tryon didn’t reach the three-figure mark in Sri Lanka, she certainly stepped up her game with the bat, scoring two half-centuries and leading the team in one game when captain Laura Wolvaardt wasn’t available for selection.

“Looking over her career and the number of games played versus the number of not-outs, I felt she may have left a couple of not-outs out there where she could have won more games for South Africa,” Abrahams said.

“So, our conversations have been about how many more times can we get her to finish games not-out for South Africa.

“I can’t give her enough praise that she’s done it in terms of being not-out in Sri Lanka, and playing some impactful knocks for us as one of the senior players in those situations for the benefit of the team.

“So, that’s the challenge that I laid in front of her, and she accepted it and she stepped up to it, so she’s got to take a lot of credit for how she went about it.

“With Laura being ill in Sri Lanka and Tryon stepping up into the captaincy role, she did it with good authority. So, she did well overall.”

The Proteas Women have the West Indies tour on the horizon, and Abrahams has his expectations for the batting group.

The batting coach wants to see bravery and boldness.

“What I want to see is braveness and boldness implemented. I want us to make a play early rather than being reactive,” said Abrahams.

“That is the one thing we’ve been stressing with the ladies is to back themselves that they’ve developed the skill and trained it sufficiently that regardless of the conditions, the game situation and whatever is put in front of them, that they do still take a positive option in whatever way it looks like to each individual.

“In that way, we then use all our resources, because we do bat quite deep, and that allows us to play in a responsible way, but also in an exciting way.

“So, that’s really what we want to see out of the West Indies tour, an improvement on what we started in Sri Lanka.”