Proteas Women’s coach Mandla Mashimbyi is unclear of what to expect in East London ahead of the first ODI against Ireland and revealed that youngsters will get an opportunity in the series as they rest key players.
Following the 2-0 T20I series victory against Ireland Women, Proteas Women now shift focus to the three-match One Day International series over the next weeks
The first ODI is at Buffalo Park in East London on Saturday, with the first ball set to bowled at 10am SAST.
In East London, there has been some rain over the past few days, a fact Mashimbyi highlighted as casting doubts in the camp.
“There’s been a lot of rain around, so you just don’t know what the conditions might bring,” Mashimbyi told the reporters on Friday.
“But we’re prepared for any eventuality. Whatever we find, we’re going to assess and then adapt accordingly.”
For the series, given that the next ICC Women’s World Cup is in four years time, Mashimbyi emphasised that they would be resting key players and giving opportunities to up and coming youngsters.
Obviously, the next World Cup is in 2029. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to see what we have in store in terms of players. We’ve got new players coming into the squad.
“We’ve rested most players to prep for 2029. So you’ll see a lot of youngsters coming in. But we still want to play the same brand of cricket,” Mashimbyi said.
“The same kind of environment that we created in the World Cup. We want to maintain that. And those are the chances that we’ve been having in our team meetings for players to understand that this is how we want to play the game.
“This is how we want to be in the environment. And the players that were at the World Cup actually have that responsibility to give their insights in terms of what it takes to be a great ODI team. And we’ve got four years to do that and make sure that 2029 we’re ready.
“So it’s a new project for us. So we’re going to make sure that we play hard. You mentioned that there’s been the addition of new players within the team and there’s sort of a plan into the next World Cup in 2029.”
Despite the Proteas Women having decided to blood youngsters for the series, Mashimbyi highlighted that they would maintain their standards, as they look to be dominant in the ODI series as well.
“We’re not apologetic about how we want to play. We play to win. We want to make winning a habit. So we’re not taking Ireland lightly,” said Mashimbyi.
“But the one thing that we make sure that we do is that we focus on ourselves. We make sure that we do what we need to do. We try and keep it as simple as possible.
“But at the same time, when there’s opportunities for us to take the game forward, we do that. So those are the chances that we’re having within the group.”
