Proteas women focused on World Cup, says coach Mashimbyi

Head coach Mandla Mashimbyi admits he is more concerned about the Proteas women putting up a fight at the World Cup later this year than he is about winning the ongoing tri-series against Sri Lanka and India.

The SA team, who lost their first two matches of the tri-series last week, will turn out in a must-win clash against table toppers India in Colombo on Wednesday (6.30am start).

They must also win their game against hosts Sri Lanka on Friday to qualify for the final on Sunday.

Having played in similar hot conditions to those expected at the World Cup, Mashimbyi felt the experience gained in the tri-series was more important for the Proteas than securing victories.

“I would rather it happen now (losing matches) than in the World Cup, and I can assure you now when the World Cup comes we will be able to handle whatever pressure is given to us because this is a learning curve for us in these conditions,” Mashimbyi said yesterday.

“For us now, what we need to do after this tri-nations is to go back to the drawing board and make sure we fill up all the gaps we’ve identified during this series.”

Aiming to hit back

Nonetheless, Mashimbyi was confident they could bounce back against Sri Lanka today, as they targeted crucial points to keep them in the running for the tri-series final.

In his first full tour in charge of the national team, Mashimbyi admitted he was also still learning, along with the players.

However, while the long-term focus was on the World Cup in India in September and October, they were eager to lift the tri-series trophy.

“The only way we can turn it around is to win the next two games, so we’re focusing on doing that,” he said.

“There are a couple of things we’ve looked into, how they (India and Sri Lanka) are going about their game and seeing where we can neutralise them.

“Hopefully with our plans and our execution it works out for us, but we’ve definitely picked out areas where we can infiltrate both teams, and hopefully we come up with two wins, and hopefully a third one (in the final) as well.”

The SA team needed to win both their next two matches, and still needed to ensure they had a better net run rate than one of the other sides, to reach the final.