Faf in flap over batters
The World T20 thriller against the Windies in Nagpur shows the Proteas still lack that cutting edge when the moment of truth comes.
|||Delhi – For all that South Africa were planning to be “smart” in their all-important ICC World Twenty20 clash against the West Indies, the thriller on Friday night in Nagpur showed the Proteas still lack that cutting edge when the moment of truth arrives.
Unlike hosts India, who were a nose hair away from being chucked out of their own party earlier this week only to show the street smartness of alley cats to get themselves out of an almighty jam, South Africa once again allowed the occasion to get the better of them.
Justifiably, South Africa bowled reasonably well in attempting to fix the batsmen’s earlier woes with Imran Tahir and David Wiese outstanding.
Kagiso Rabada also finally showed his true capabilities when he set the game in motion with a stunning delivery that was simply too good for Chris Gayle early on.
However, the bowlers were always on a hiding to nothing after the batting unit left it to a 23-year-old to show them how to approach an innings not conducive to your natural game.
But as well as Quinton de Kock adapted to the conditions, he is not entirely faultless either, for it was his indecision that led to the early run-out of Hashim Amla.
De Kock’s own dismissal also came at a crucial stage of the innings. Had the left-hander batted for just two more overs, the potentially match-winning total of 140-plus was well within reach.
“The batting was the difference between us winning and losing,” a crestfallen Proteas captain Faf Du Plessis, pictured, said after the three-wicket defeat.
“We needed to get to 130-135 to have a par score. That’s the batting unit’s problem. I thought we were very frantic there, up front.
“Obviously, you never want to start your innings with a run-out. That puts you back, puts everything in a negative mode, because you’re giving the opposition a wicket.
“But to lose three or four wickets so quickly broke our momentum in the innings, and that was the difference between us getting to 140.”
Du Plessis was particularly critical of his top order in regard to the manner of their dismissals.
The skipper was not afraid to “name and shame” and included his own ill-advised lofted drive to mid-off among the brain implosions.
“Those decisions you make when you’re batting, we didn’t make them tonight. The run-out (Amla), caught at mid-off (Du Plessis) and Rilee (Rossouw)… our first three wickets were all soft wickets. AB’s wicket was also a soft wicket,” Du Plessis said frankly.
“Especially in a big game like today, you want your big players to stand up, and myself, Hashim and AB, one of us needed to anchor the innings and be there.
“They didn’t bowl us out tonight, we were put in situations where we needed to be smarter and we weren’t.
“If you don’t do those things, you’re not going to bat as well as you can.”
Plenty was made of the expected conditions in the build-up to Friday night’s thriller.
The ICC even ordered a change of strip to give the batsmen a better chance of scoring runs after the first Super 10 match between India and New Zealand yielded a total of 205.
It wasn’t a Mumbai belter, where the Proteas passed 200 in each of their previous innings, but with the correct application, a batsman could score runs.
De Kock proved it for South Africa, while Marlon Samuels did likewise for the Windies.
Considering the entire Proteas batting unit – bar Amla – all play in the Indian Premier League too, there is even less of an excuse to why the South African batsmen were not equipped to confront the challenges before them.
This infuriates Du Plessis greatly as he knows his team are capable of much better than what’s been on display over the past fortnight.
“We’re not playing close to how good we are or can be, and that’s frustrating,” Du Plessis said.
“We want to be better, and unfortunately we’re not producing the goods on the day.
“As I said, you need a bit of luck but also you make your own luck, and I feel if you win those small moments in the game, generally the luck goes your way.
“That’s why it didn’t go our way, because we were just half a step behind West Indies all the time. But they’re playing great cricket.”
– The Sunday Independent