‘No excuses’: Proteas women must adapt better to conditions, says Mashimbyi

The Proteas let themselves down, particularly with the bat, head coach Mandla Mashimbyi admitted after their loss to Sri Lanka in the women’s ODI tri-series match in Colombo on Friday.

After being sent in to bat, the SA team were restricted to 235/9, and Sri Lanka reached 237/5 with 21 balls to spare to secure a five-wicket victory.

The conditions were hot, as they had been in the Proteas’ 15-run defeat to India earlier in the week, but Mashimbyi felt they could have adapted better.

“It’s obviously a disappointing result for us. I think we let ourselves down with the bat,” Mashimbyi said.

“The conditions weren’t that bad, to be honest, and I think we probably didn’t play them as well as we should have.

“We always knew it was going to be tough coming here. The heat was on today and you could see the girls suffering, but that’s no excuse. I think we could have maximised from a batting point of view.

“There were a couple of times where we actually had good partnerships and we were about to pull the plug, but we lost wickets at crucial times.”

Their second defeat left the Proteas languishing at the bottom of the tri-series table with no points. India were top of the standings with four points and hosts Sri Lanka were lying second with two points.

Mashimbyi said his side would need to step up next week, with two more games to play against India on Wednesday and Sri Lanka on Friday, as they targeted a spot in the final to be contested next weekend.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board and make sure all these small things we’ve learned from the past two games, we will put them right in the next two games so we can make that final.”