SOUTH Africa Women are one-nil down in the three-match T20I series against England following their four-wicket defeat in the first match at Buffalo Park Stadium in East London on Sunday.
This week, the series is moving up country to the highveld with the second and third matches scheduled to be played at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Wednesday before wrapping up at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.
Going into the last two games of the series, Proteas Women's all-rounder Nadine de Klerk stressed the importance of batting partnerships in winning matches in T20 cricket.
In East London, South Africa’s partnership was between De Klerk and Annerie Dercksen as the pair combined for a 42-run stand for the sixth wicket, a feat that De Klerk says was their downfall.
On the bowling front, the hosts gave away 13 extras and De Klerk urged the team to sharpen up their skills ahead of the second T20 in Benoni tomorrow.
“From the batting point of view, we probably didn’t have enough partnerships,” De Klerk told the media.
“I think, we lost a lot of wickets in clusters so going into the next game, we all know T20 cricket is all about partnerships, especially on a tricky wicket like in East London you need partnerships and you need in batters towards the back end and we probably didn't have enough of that.
“We're obviously playing in very different conditions in the next couple of games in Benoni and SuperSport Park so the key with the bat is to get partnerships.
“With the ball, we started pretty well, we bowled too many extras and let the batters get away a bit early on. From a bowling point of view, just sharpen up on that and make it really hard for the batters to score.”
Despite the loss, South Africa had encouraging performances from some of the youngsters who are replacing experienced players Marizanne Kapp and Ayabonga Khakha as the duo is rested for the series.
The 21-year-old seam bowler Eliz-Mari Marx and 23-year-old all-rounder Dercksen had great games as Marx grabbed three wickets while Dercksen finished unbeaten on 26 batting at number five.
De Klerk can foresee the youngsters taking out lessons from the first match of the series.
“You've got to start somewhere and it is pretty tough if you've only played a handful of games and you come up against a side like England,” said De Klerk.
“It’s never easy for anyone, it's international cricket at the end of the day so it’s always going to be really challenging. I'm sure they're going to learn a lot, they've been in and around the SA setup for quite a while now.
“So, it’s a great opportunity for them and I'm sure they're going to take heaps of learnings from this game going into the next couple of games.”
The second T20I gets underway at 6pm tomorrow in Benoni.