Johannesburg, April 21 (IANS) As South African women get ready to play against India Women in the third T20I of the series, pacer Tumi Sekhukhune, who had a tough series against New Zealand before it, has helped them excel in home conditions and take the lead against India. South Africa went down 1-4 to hosts New Zealand in the five-match women’s T20I series.

South Africa lead the series after winning the first two games by six and eight wickets. Winning Wednesday’s third game will seal the five-match series in their favour. The hosts have been in full control, executing their game plans well with both bat and ball, while exposing India’s inconsistency, especially in the middle order.

Pacer Sekhukhune said the bowling unit was roughed up on the New Zealand tour and therefore wanted to get out of that process, as they believe they are a better team than the one that conceded 350-plus runs. “I think, coming from New Zealand, it was tough, but we’ve always known that we are a much better team than that. There are things that we actually didn’t do well, which was the bowling unit – getting hit and giving away 350 plus was just not what we actually wanted to get out of that,” she said in the pre-match press conference ahead of the third T20I.

But the positives for Sekhukhune in New Zealand were that she got to play games consistently while the team gained in confidence. “For me personally, I think getting to play games consistently, I think it builds confidence and, where you need to fix, where you need to keep working on. I think it also builds confidence. I think, as a team, we are just focused on the things that we’ve done well before, and let’s try to do things the way that we did it before,” she added.

Talking further about the positives she’s carried from that tour of New Zealand, Sekhukhune said getting to open the bowling was a big gain for her.

“I think we had a couple of challenges in New Zealand leading up to this tour, but we also had positives as well – like me opening the bowling, or bowling in the powerplay, that was one of my positives moving forward. I think we just wanted to focus on the basics and just keep things simple coming into India. So, I think as a bowling unit, that’s what we wanted to do coming into the series against India,” she said.

She said that as a bowling unit, they wanted to focus on the basics against India, as she discussed what worked for her with the new ball. “I think it was really surprising to see that I can bowl in the Power-play and I can swing the ball out as well. So, I know I’m not the quickest. Also, I think our strategy moving forward was to have the keeper up and see what I can bring into the team and see whether it can help us work on the things or not. But I think it’s going really well now. So, I’m happy with that,” she added.

On key elements working for her with the new ball, she added, “I think as a seam bowler, you’re just trying to be as consistent as possible and just always keep the batters having pressure. I think my key elements for me were just to hit the top of the stamp, keep it simple, and not change much. Also, because I’m a very slow deliveries bowler, just bring in my variations and hopefully help me get wickets or break partnerships.”

Sekhukhune said the team has worked on improving as a fielding unit. “I think it’s just the attitude around fielding as a whole. I think, before in New Zealand, when you got hit, you’d automatically just get hit down. I think now what we’re looking to do is that even if you got hit or things didn’t go well, just have the same energy and have the team back you up – just give you high fives, then and then, a pat on your back, that actually will work.

“I think we’ve been a pretty decent fielding team in the couple of years, and I think we’ve got a lot of things that we can work towards. But we’ve never had a tour like New Zealand – so I think we just want to leave all of that behind and just move forward in terms of what we can do better,” she added.

Sekhukhune said taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series on Wednesday was very important for South Africa as it will give them some momentum ahead of the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup.

“I think it’s very important for us to have a 3-0 scoreline tomorrow because we’re preparing for the World Cup and we want to take that momentum going into the World Cup. Obviously, we’re trying to do things differently and see if they could work – different combinations and see Sune opening the batting. So, I think those are the things that I think we are working towards in getting into the World Cup,” she added.

–IANS

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