Ken Borland

Women’s Proteas coach Hilton Moreeng on Wednesday described their upcoming tour of the West Indies, in which they will play three ODIs and five T20 internationals from September 16 to October 6, as being vital on two fronts.

The ODIs form part of the ICC Women’s Championship, in which South Africa are currently languishing in seventh place, but if they win the series then they will overtake the fifth-placed West Indies, with the top four teams automatically qualifying for the 2021 World Cup.

But while that is South Africa’s priority, they would be stupid not to take advantage of being in the Caribbean just a couple of months before the next T20 World Cup, and the Proteas will get in some invaluable reconnaissance during that five-match series against the defending champions.

“The importance of the tour is two-fold, firstly the three ODIs are key because of the ICC Women’s Championship and they give us the opportunity for some points because we have some home series after that. Our priority is the ODIs, but we are very fortunate to play the T20s against the defending champions on their home soil as well.

“We will be able to see the conditions over there, we know the West Indies play very aggressive cricket and they obviously know the conditions very well, so we can see how we go against them, having beaten them here in the T20 series in 2016. So we will take as much as we can from being exposed to the conditions over there,” Moreeng said at the Tuks Cricket Oval, where the team is preparing at the High Performance Centre.

The Women’s Proteas disappointed in their tour of England in June, making silly mistakes, and the drive for consistency is the major focus of their preparations.

“Our consistency is the biggest thing we need to improve, we were extremely inconsistent in England. The skills were not where they should be, both in terms of the batting and the bowling. The fitness and fielding have been very good on the first two days of our camp and I’m very happy with how the youngsters are keeping up.

“We will now be going into the different scenarios we want to train for and the three practice games we’ll play will make sure the players all understand what is required. The experience around the young players will help them grow, we’ve been keeping tabs on how the new faces go about their business at the High Performance Centre and they have graduated very well,” Moreeng said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180823/282063392820794