Proteas Women coach Mandla Mashimbyi in a desperate search for pace ahead of India series

Proteas Women’s coach Mandla Mashimbyi will "leave no stone unturned" in preparation for the upcoming India T20I series after his team were humbled in New Zealand in both white-ball series.

The White Ferns crushed the Proteas 4-1 in the T20Is before the visitors surrendered the ODI series 2-1 over the past weekend. 

Mashimbyi now has less than a fortnight at home to prepare his team for the five-match T20I series, starting at Kingsmead on April 17, against the current ODI world champions. 

The Proteas Women’s mentor, though, remained optimistic that the margins between victory and defeat were small in New Zealand, and his team can turn their fortunes around at home.

"[We have to] make sure that we can lose a series but it doesn't make us a bad team. I think when you're a team and you realise where you've gone wrong and it's not things that you haven't done before," Mashimbyi said. 

"Normally where the gaps are it's probably a little bit of a concentration thing or an awareness thing, and it costs you dearly. I think the whole series that was the case with us. That's probably what we need to brush up and make sure that against India we leave no stone unturned."

The glaring factor in the Proteas’ reversals was the benign performance of the bowling attack. Although reducing the White Ferns to 3/3 in the last ODI in Wellington through a double strike from Tumi Sekhkhune and young pacer Ayanda Hlubi, the home team still managed to post a total in excess of 300, with Maddy Green, who struck a career-best 141 not out and Brooke Halliday’ 98, sharing a 211-run fourth-wicket partnership.

This was on the back of the Proteas’ conceding a world-record run chase in the second ODI when White Ferns skipper Amelia Kerr struck an unbeaten 179 to power her team to 350/8.

"I think our worry is where we need to tweak, where are the gaps," Mashimbyi said. "We just need to make sure that we get better. I thought the two young [fast bowlers, 21-year-old Ayanda Hlubi and 27-year-old Tumi Sekhukhune] were good up front. 

"They actually complemented each other very well. One was swinging the ball well, and the other one was bowling hard lengths. I thought they did a really good job for us. But I think overs after that sort of released the pressure, which allowed Green and Halliday to get in. The rest is history.”

Veteran seamer Ayabonga Khaka has tried her best to step up in the absence of her former new-ball partners - Marizanne Kapp (load management) and Shabnim Ismail (international retirement) - with nine wickets, including a career-best six-for in the first match - in the first two matches before being rested for the third ODI, but she is receiving precious little support from the remainder of the attack. 

Seam bowling allrounder Nadine de Klerk was particularly poor, averaging 87.00 for her two wickets, while conceding 7.35 per over. 

However, the biggest disappointment of the ODI series was the performances of the spinners with New Zealand’s batters profiting during the middle overs. The Proteas’ premier strike weapon Nonkululeko Mlaba picked up just one wicket in the entire series at a cost of 173 runs, while the combination of Chloe Tryon, Sune Luus and Kalya Reyneke only managed five wickets between them for a sum total of six wickets falling to all four spinners. 

"We’d like to have some pace, but there is nothing on offer at the moment,” Mashimbyi admitted. Obviously, we need to change how we think about our bowling attack.

"In essence, that makes us a pressure-building type of team, [we need to] understand how our spinners should operate in the middle overs; and once we get those dynamics right, we should be close to where we need to be from a bowling point of view."

Kapp is expected to be back for the India series which should provide the Proteas with a major boost, while there have also been discussions with former pace spearhead Ismail, who still plays for the Lions in domestic cricket and in various global T20 leagues, to possibly return to international cricket.