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Cape Town - The three-match women's One-Day International (ODI) series could be decided on Thursday when South Africa take on Sri Lanka in the second fixture in Potchefstroom.
The hosts, who are currently 1-0 up after sneaking a seven-run win on Monday hope to settle the series with a more convincing performance.
Number three batter, Lara Goodall said the team have put in a lot of work in their preparation for what is to them, a must-win match if they want to move up in the ICC Women's Championship log. They took note of the areas they believe they fell short in and spent the last two days refining those skill sets.
"The preparation's been great," she commented at the end of the team's training session which was followed by heavy rainfall.
"Luckily this morning when we started training the sun was shining. Bowlers and batters did what they needed to do, a lot of the girls stayed and did a lot of extras so a lot of hard work has been put in ahead of tomorrow's game.
"After the first game, our fielding was a big concern, we felt like we lacked there," she continued. "Also when we were batting, we felt like we were going a little bit too slow, so we were discussing and looking at a few more options in the middle, how to get those ones and those boundary options too. The last game was a little too close for comfort, tomorrow we want to make sure that it's a convincing win."
The 22 year-old was pleased to see her side was capable of fighting to virtually the last ball for their first win, but said they want to finish strong in future and return more convincing victories.
"We've spoken a lot about keeping calm under pressure with all of our coaches," she explained. "At the end of the day, a win is a win. If it has to be scrappy, it has to be scrappy. You can win the World Cup by one run and you'll still have won the World Cup. I feel like we haven't been playing the way that we like, but we're still getting over the line which is a huge positive for us because in the past, we would lose games like that."
Goodall was not overly pleased with her own performance in the first match. She was bowled out by Udeshika Prabodhani for 12 off 24 balls but says, if given the opportunity to redeem herself in the second match, she will implement all of the plans she has worked on with assistant coach Salieg Nackerdien.
"I've been working really hard with Salieg Nackerdien (Proetas assistant coach) and it's been going really well. Obviously Sri Lanka pose a massive challenge with the turning ball, so I've been working on that. They are a very good bowling side especially, they know how to squeeze a team and are very good at getting a team to bat where they want them to. Batting wise they had a very good start in the first ODI so we can't underestimate them. They have good players, their captain (Chamari Aattapaththu) was really amazing and Shashikala Siriwardene did well," she added.
When asked what the team needs to do to give themselves the best chance at victory tomorrow, she said:
"We need to take it a ball at a time. The scoreboard goes back to zero tomorrow again. We'll take it from there and obviously with the rain we've had today, the conditions will play a little bit differently. So it's about getting to the ground, assessing conditions quickly and playing accordingly."
The match will start at 10:00 at Senwes Park Cricket Stadium and entrance is free of charge.
