Exclusive: Tumi Sekhukhune says Proteas Women Embracing Change Before World Cup Tilt

South Africa's women's cricket team won their recent ODI series in the West Indies 2-1 before losing the T20 rubber by the same margin, but more importantly from their perspective, they were able to work on facets of their game that were poor, ahead of the one-day World Cup at the end of September.

The West Indies trip was just the Proteas' second overseas tour under new coach Mandla Mashimbyi, and the players are continuing to evolve their games under the former trophy-winning Titans men's coach.

The 26-year-old seamer Tumi Sekhukhune returned to the national team for the first time this year after injury, and she said there is much growth apparent in the players' individual games.

"We're really excited to have him as our coach," Sekhukhune told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview. 

"There are camps before and after the tour and we've been really working on our games and especially on what we don't do well."

"The good thing about Mandla is that you can speak to him and create those relationships. We trust the process and he relies on everyone because he wants to see the different combinations. So everyone gets an opportunity to play and get to know the conditions we expect for the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka."

"We'll also go to Pakistan for a tour and then to the World Cup, so we'll have a good idea of conditions on the sub-continent. Mandla has really been a confidence boost for us and has good plans. Now it's up to us to adapt quickly and put our plans in place, we've seen what works," Sekhukhune said.

du Preez on Mandla Mashimbyi 

Clinton du Preez, the convenor of the national women's team's selection panel, said the batting had improved with Mashimbyi shaking things up with a new-look, flexible batting order.

"The tour was successful in terms of what we wanted to achieve as we plan our way forward. Mandla needed to look at different combinations, having told me in our initial discussions where he wanted to take the team," Du Preez told SportsBoom.co.za. 

"I'm open to it because we want to forego set positions, we are going to do things differently now and potentially break new ground. So we are testing certain players in new positions after everyone had got used to the same order, it was easy previously to predict the order of our starting XI. It helps to enhance the batters' games and their scoring opportunities."

"In the one-day series, we focused on structuring partnerships together and trying to get to 300 more often. We scored 309 and 278 for six in 45 overs in the two games we won, so the batting was more stable. In the T20s, we played around with combinations and gave some younger players more responsibility. It's clear in our minds that we will need a lot of runs and then we'll have a good chance of success in the World Cup," Du Preez said.

Poor Depth

The Proteas have endured poor depth in recent years, being heavily dependent on a handful of star players like Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka and Tazmin Brits. But Du Preez says he and Mashimbyi are trying to spread the load.

"We've depended a lot on Laura for her hundreds and Marizanne, although she doesn't play a lot, is a big match player for us. We rested Ayabonga, which never happened before. We need to get the other players to complement those 'stars'."

"Some batters enjoy the hard ball up front but don't like batting in the middle. Tazmin, for example, struggled with that before, but the tour showed how she has enhanced her game. Our top-order is good, but we would like to strengthen the middle-order and hopefully Sune Luus can be a consistent scorer for us there."

"We saw Nondumiso Shangase, who had a career strike-rate in the 60s, go up the order and score a 42-ball fifty. We also believe our wicketkeeper must bat top seven, so Sinalo Jafta was moved up the order and we started to see her contribute, with Karabo Meso putting her place under pressure. Potentially we can bat so deep and that will allow us to play with more intent up front."

"I would say our World Cup squad is at about 90% in terms of selection, we have our core group. We need to work out how we can strengthen our middle-order and the other question is how do we balance our side? We have previously had a set plan of using three seamers and three spinners."

"We have to manage Marizanne, so we played all our seamers in the West Indies. Ayanda Hlubi played in the T20s and Annerie Dercksen and Tumi Sekhukhune were also given opportunities," Du Preez concluded.