Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup - Proteas pipped by defending champs in warm-up

Simon Lewis

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Last updated: 3 hours ago

Simon Lewis 3 hours ago

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South Africa Women lost their last warm-up match to defending champs New Zealand by five wickets.
South Africa have lost in the last two finals and are dark horses to take the title (11.00).
The 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup takes place from 12 June to 5 July 2026.

Chloe Tryon smashed 61* off just 26 balls against New Zealand (Getty Images).

Proteas go down in last over to New Zealand

Laura Wolvaardt (43 off 27) and Nadine de Klerk (46 off 33) gave the Proteas a good start, but it was the heavy hitting of Chloe Tryon who ensured the Proteas rose to a competitive score of 183/5 off their 20 overs.

Tryon hit six sixes and three fours in a 26-ball innings of 61*. Jess Kerr (2/21, econ 7.00) and Sophie Devine (2/16, econ 5.33) were the only two bowlers to go for under nine to the over.

New Zealand made an excellent start and were 113/1 in the 12th over before the Proteas put the squeeze on, forcing New Zealand to battle to the third-last ball of the match to secure the win.

Ayabonga Khaka (2/41) enjoyed the most success with the ball, while Nonkululeko Mlaba (1/26, econ 6.50) was the most economical of the Proteas bowlers.

Proteas well prepared for the tournament

“Our plans have been really good and our preparation has been really good as well. I think everyone's excited to get the World Cup going. Overall we're just happy with how the prep has gone and just excited to get that first game,” said batting star Chloe Tryon in her post-match interview.

“We spoke in meetings about having an aggressive mindset. We want to play that brand of cricket and we want to be scoring as much as we can. That partnership with me and Nadine was really crucial. One bat had to stay towards the end and we had a lot of options in our mind, but also we were quite positive on the way we wanted to go about it.

“It's about making sure we can have that complete performance where everyone comes in with really good intent with the bat. There's still a couple of areas to improve, especially with our bowling. We probably lost a little bit in the middle and tried to pull it back at the end, but we felt it was a little bit too late, but those are lessons that we can learn,” added Tryon, who went for 20 runs off her two overs, picking up the first wicket to fall.

T20 World Cup odds.