South Africa’s Chloe Tryon says this ICC Women’s T20 World Cup feels different from any other as the Proteas continue their run towards the knockout stages against Thailand. South Africa will play their 2nd match of the tournament against Thailand on 28th February 2020.
The Proteas women have not reached their peak potential at the tournament yet, with a heartbreaking defeat to England in 2014 which is the only time they progressed beyond the group stage.
Chloe Tryon believes that the road to victory is clear with the strong leadership of Dane van Niekerk and alongside all-rounder genius Marizanne Kapp.
“We’ve evolved as a team in the past few years and managed to get past England by having good plans,” said the all-rounder. We feel well prepared for this tournament and it was great to start the tournament with a win.”
This year feels different. After the T20 World Cup in 2018, there was a lot of reflection and we felt as a batting unit we weren’t doing what we needed to do,” She added.
“We reflected a lot individually and knew what we had to change. We’ve worked hard in the off-season and playing in the Women’s Big Bash League has really helped some of the members.”
“We have a responsibility now and it only takes one game at a time to get where we want to go.” She further said.
Tyron is known for her fearless game and hitting sixes. She became the first and only player to take a wicket with her first ball in the Women’s T20 World Cup against West Indies in 2010.
The all-rounder could not prove her worth in the England win, where she only contributed 12 runs in that match. However, she is the hype for the match against Thailand as to score good runs at the Manuka Oval.
Tournament debutants Thailand fell to the heaviest defeat in Women’s T20 World Cup history on Wednesday, succumbing to a 98-run loss to England and suffering at the hands of Heather Knight who made 108.
In that match, Heather Knight gave them a scare when she alone scored 108 in 66 balls and become the first English cricketer male or female to score hundreds in Test, ODI, and T20I cricket.
They were few brilliant moments of excitement for the Thailand team too. It was when both England openers were dismissed for ducks, with leg-spinner Nattaya Boochatham against Amy Jones and having her stumped in the game’s opening over.
Boochatham feels that improvements are important for survival and the defeat gave her side a reality check.
“We’re obviously very disappointed in our performance, we felt we could have done a lot better,” said the Thai vice-captain.
Realizing that they need to play strategically she said, “We were very excited to get the chance to play against one of the world’s best teams but going into the South Africa game, we need to execute our plans more consistently and be more clinical on the field.”
“We’ve been exposed at this level. If we don’t get it right, we overcook things and we’re punished for it. It’s a matter of working out the situation and changing our plans.
“South Africa seems like the team with the best form in the group. Their batting unit is really aggressive, so we have to keep it tight and as we saw against England, anything loose will go for runs.” She said as she spoke about team South Africa.
News Source: ICC Media Zone.