“Especially in conditions like this against one of the world’s greatest teams. I mean, I’ll take that any day.” Tazmin Brits reflects on her match-winning performance in the 1st T20I.
The South African women’s team led by skipper Laura Wolvaardt staged a solid comeback to register their first victory on the tour to go 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series with a 12-run victory in the 1st T20I.
The 33-year-old opening batter Tazmin Brits was at the heart of an impressive show from the Proteas in the first match of the T20I series. She notched up her career-best T20I score (81 off 56 balls) surpassing her previous best of 78 against Pakistan on 1st September 2023 in the 1st T20I. “Yeah, it’s always great, your career-best, I mean, especially in conditions like this, against one of the world’s greatest teams. I mean, I’ll take that any day.” Tazmin Brits oozes confidence after delivering a match-winning performance for her side in the 1st T20I.
The South African right-handed batter who is also an occasional wicket-keeper, is still trying to find her feet in the T20I format. At times, she has also been under scrutiny for failing to meet the requirements of the modern template of approaching the T20I format. “I think it was maybe just more in myself. I tried to hit the ball too hard in the first few overs. I wanted to hit the leather off the ball, maybe send the ball back to South Africa. But yeah, I think I wasn’t getting into good positions. I think there’s a lot of basic things I should have looked at now that I think about it.” The opening batter Tazmin Brits speaks about being desperate to hit the ball out of the park.
She was a tad bit slower to get off the blocks as she took nine balls to get off the mark. She was eventually caught up with the pace of her innings, notching up her half-century in 40 balls. She packed a punch to finish the innings off in style, taking her side closer to the 190-run mark. She scored with a strike rate of over 200 in the last 15 balls of her innings.
“It was a now or never type of thing and of course, communication from Wolfie and Kappie also helped. It’s difficult to see when you’re betting what you’re actually doing wrong. Maybe your head position or you know you’re leaning back. So it’s nice to have that from a different end. That information from them, I think that maybe helped me shift the game a bit.” Tazmin Brits speak about the conversions she had with the skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp during their partnership at the crease.
(Quotes sourced from Twitter and Cricbuzz)