South Africa bounced back with a series leveling victory in the fifth and final T20I in Benoni, and coach Hilton Mooreng is happy with the improvements the team has shown in the tour.
Proteas women fast bowlers Masabata Klaas and Nadine de Klerk bowled South Africa to victory at Willowmore Park as the duo picked up three wickets each to help South Africa settle the series after suffering a defeat yesterday at the same ground.
Coach Mooreng is pleased with the developments of Klaas and De Klerk as the duo spent a long time sitting on the bench early on in their careers while they waited their turns.
“(Their performances) show a lot of growth.They always had a lot of seniors around them bowling. They always found themselves on the bench because of the quality the other bowlers brought to the squad,” said Mooreng, following South Africa women’s 11 run victory over New Zealand women yesterday.
“In the last two tours, they had an opportunity to start, to execute and (got) a bit of game time. The two games also provided enough pressure to able to see how they reacted to that and how they executed their skills.
“Now we can go back and work again because we know that going forward, they are the bowlers that are putting up their hands and putting up the right performances.
“We’re very happy for them because they’ve put in a lot of hard work when we’re in preparation.
“It’s good to see them eventually getting their opportunities to show what they can do. They’ve been consistent and persistent and very good teammates to have around the team.”
South Africa started the season on the backfoot with a 3-0 series whitewash in Pakistan and have not lost another series since.
Mooreng told the media he is happy with the growth the team has shown over the past two tours, but is especially pleased to see how well Laura Wolvaardt handled her first captaincy role.
“(There’s) a lot of positives, especially with our strongest format being the ODIs. We were very happy to see how the batters went,” said Mooreng.
“The biggest plus for us is how Laura handled the captaincy and how she handled the leadership role.
“You look at her performances and the way she handled the troops in the field. It shows the maturity on such young shoulders that she has.
“She’s taken the leadership role extremely well. I think that is the biggest plus for us out of the two tours because they have been two tough tours and challenging for her also to be able to balance performance and leadership.
“Overall, we’re very happy.”
South Africa women leveled the series one-all and will now return to action when they host Bangladesh women in December.
Scorecard
South Africa: 155/5 (Brits 45, Luus 36, Tahuhu 2/20, Penfold 2/27)
New Zealand: 144/8 (Amelia Kerr 61,South Suzie Bates 45, De Klerk 3/24, Klaas 3/26)
South Africa won by 11 runs
Sport
