Johannesburg - Hilton Moreeng is demanding a more rounded effort, less dependent on individual performances, as South Africa starts its building process towards the 2025 Women’s World Cup.
The Proteas women tackle Ireland in the first of three One-Day Internationals, in the Dublin suburb of Clontarf on Saturday with the immediate goal being to pick up the necessary points for the International Women’s Championship, which will determine the automatic qualifying positions for the 50-over showpiece.
The other goal is developing a style where the team produces more holistic performances.
“The success we had in ODIs is because we had different players performing on different days. The consistency for us - as we saw at the World Cup - is that a few players were putting up their hands and we didn’t have the collective effort that we would have liked,” the Proteas head coach said on Friday.
The World Cup saw superb individual performances from Laura Wolvaardt, Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp, but when they failed, others either only stepped up sporadically, or not at all. It proved costly especially in that semi-final, where the Proteas were blown away by England.
South Africa’s squad is the same as the one that won the T20 International series against the Irish on Wednesday evening, although there will be some positional switches for the longer limited overs format. Wolvaardt will return to her position at the top of the order, while the in-form Lara Goodall, who made 52 and 48 in the last two T20 matches will slot back into the no.3 spot which she will hope to make her own in the coming weeks.
With Lizelle Lee absent, Tazmin Brits is likely to be given further opportunity at the top of the order, although Moreeng explained that her lack of output was irritating. The powerful right-hander scored 28 runs in the three T20 matches, and in ODIs has failed to turn a succession of starts into innings of real substance.
Saturday’s match starts at 11.45am SA time.
Squads
Ireland: Gaby Lewis (capt), Alana Dalzell, Rachel Delaney, Georgina Dempsey, Sarah Forbes, Shauna Kavanagh, Arlene Kelly, Sophie MacMahon, Jane Maguire, Kate McEvoy, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Celeste Raack, Mary Waldron
South Africa: Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Trisha Chetty, Nadine de Klerk, Lara Goodall, Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Sune Luus (capt), Nonkululeko Mlaba, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Tumi Sekhukhune, Andrie Steyn, Chloe Tryon, Delmi Tucker, Laura Wolvaardt
IOL Sport