Proteas Women have to do the basics better, says Tryon

South Africa Women's team captain Chloe Tryon said her side's failure to execute the basics well was the reason why they lost their must-win encounter against India Women in their third Servo Cup Women's Tri-Nations Series encounter at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Colombo, on Wednesday.

South Africa succumbed to a 23-run loss to India despite their valiant attempt to chase down 338 runs for victory.

Tryon won the toss and asked India to bat first.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-captained side raced to 337-9 in 50 overs. Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma batted well on their way to milestones.

"I think the year has just begun for me. I just want to keep going. The main target is the World Cup. But yeah, I'm very pleased with the knock today. Even more specially, my parents were here. They were not there when I scored my first international, but they were there when I scored the second, so I'm very happy with that," Rodrigues, who was named the Player of the match for her century, shared.

Rodrigues registered her maiden ODI century in January this year, and this was her second.

She scored a scintillating 123 runs off 101 balls.

Sharma scythed a brilliant 93 off 84. While the pair batted well, they also cashed in on South Africa's erratic bowling and subpar fielding.

"I think we can say as a team, this is probably not the best first half we've had with the ball. Obviously, we got a little bit tight at the stumps, and our fielding wasn't up to standard. It hasn't been up to standard this whole tournament. But yeah, we didn't get it, I think we leaked a lot around the day," Tryon, who was standing in for Laura Wolvaardt as skipper, shared after the match.

Wolvaardt was unable to take part in South Africa's must-win tie because of an injury.

The loss means that South Africa have now been knocked out of the tournament.

India and Sri Lanka will proceed to the final to be played on Sunday, 11 May.

'GO BACK TO THE BASICS'

South Africa still have a chance to earn a consolation win when they face Sri Lanka in their final group match on Friday.

"I think as a bowling unit, we need to go back to the basics. I think we should have beaten the stumps a lot more. So, I think going back to basics will be really important to us for the last game against Sri Lanka," she explained.

South Africa conceded 56 runs in the first 10 overs of the contest and never recovered.

They bowled too short and committed avoidable mistakes in the field. India took advantage of that.

The South Africa captain estimated that they leaked up to 30 or 40 runs in the field.

According to Tryon, they went through the match playing catch-up with the ball and did not put enough pressure on the opposition.

However, despite the disappointing loss, there were some positives for South Africa to take from the match.

Annerie Dercksen has long harboured ambitions to emulate Marizanne Kapp and develop into a world-class allrounder.

The 24-year-old made good on those dreams with a great showing with bat and ball.

Dercksen was one of the most economical bowlers when South Africa had the ball.

She took a single wicket for 36 runs in her six-over quota.

She followed that up with a brilliant 81 off 80 balls as she grabbed South Africa's chase by the scruff of the neck.

Her innings pulled South Africa from the brink and gave them hope.

Dercksen's innings was crucial for South Africa to post a total beyond 300.

South Africa scored 314-7 in a thrilling chase. Dercksen shared a 72-run sixth-wicket stand with Tryon, South Africa's highest partnership in the match.

Tryon kept the flame ablaze after Dercksen's dismissal, but was unable to see her side over the finish line despite her best efforts.

"We (Dercksen and Tryon) didn't think of anything but just hitting the ball and swinging a single ball. We worked in small stages of how to chase the run rate as much as we could. We never gave up to the end. That's what I love about this team. We showed a lot of character. And I think we really showed that," she explained.

South Africa will have an opportunity to put the lessons learnt from this loss to the test when they go up against Sri Lanka on Friday.