After two poor performances to start their T20 World Cup, the Proteas know that there is little room for error in Sunday’s crucial clash with India in Manchester. Lose and their tournament is virtually over. Win and they remain on course for the title. “Destiny is in our hands, we know how important this game is to us. We can’t overthink this too much but it is like a quarterfinal,” said veteran all-rounder Chloe Tryon. After their opening loss to Australia and then the narrow win against Pakistan, the Proteas know they will have to win the rest of their matches, starting with the Old Trafford fixture (3.30pm Sunday), if they are to qualify for the playoffs. Tryon said the South Africans have held plenty of conversations after their first two matches, and that the prevailing sentiment was that they needed to be more proactive. “The brand of cricket we play is very aggressive and we want to play to our full capabilities,” said Tryon. To achieve that South Africa need to adapt better to conditions, something they failed to do against Pakistan and Australia. While the Proteas have relied heavily on their seam bowling, opposing teams have assessed pitches better and used spin to slow down the scoring. Tryon said the surface for Sunday’s match will be different to the one last week’s match with Australia was played on, but it would nevertheless be slow and likely assist spin. India will certainly borrow a page from the playbook used by Australia and Pakistan and with Sree Charan and Deepti Sharma in their line-up, spin will likely be the order of the day again. The Indian spin twins have shared 13 wickets between them in the tournament, and will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling to a Proteas batting line-up that has looked tentative thus far.“For us it’s about being proactive as a batting unit. We haven’t rotated as well as we should have,” said Tryon.With Laura Wolvaardt starved of much of the strike in the power play in the first two matches, the onus will be on the rest of the batting unit to take on more responsibility. With the exception of Annerie Dercksen, who made 52 against Pakistan, the rest of the Proteas batters have wavered. Running well between wickets, especially given the bigger outfields being used at this year’s World Cup will be crucial. Like South Africa, India is not a good fielding unit and there will be opportunities for quick singles and twos. How Wolvaardt uses her bowling options will be of interest too. While their opponents have bowled a high percentage of spin overs, the Proteas have leaned on their seamers, perhaps too much. Kayla Reyneke and Sune Luus have both not yet bowled a ball in the tournament. Wolvaardt may want to seek some wisdom about being more flexible from former skipper Dane van Niekerk, who is part of the squad, but has yet to play a match.“Dane is one of the best thinkers and she always speaks her mind. She does make you look at things from different perspectives,” said Tryon. Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur will become the first player (man or woman) to play in 200 T20 Internationals on Sunday.