Johannesburg - The lack of competitive edge was evident in virtually everything the South African team did in the opening T20 International against Ireland, and it is something they will hope to rekindle ahead of the second match in Dublin on Monday.
The Irish, missing eight senior players, shocked the Proteas in the first of three T20 Internationals defeating them by 10 runs at Pembroke Cricket Club on Friday evening.
“We just lacked intent from the start,” South African captain Sune’ Luus bemoaned. “We started poorly with the ball, those first 10 overs weren’t our best although we brought it back nicely, and it was a positive that we were able to restrict Ireland to (143/7).”
Indeed that was the case, and it reflects just how important it was to have match time in the legs. In the case of the Irish their players, while lacking international experience, had for the most part been involved in domestic competition recently. For the majority of the Proteas team, preparation for the Irish tour consisted of net sessions and internal squad matches, where the intensity wasn't as sharp.
Still Luus and head coach Hilton Moreeng would have expected much better from the players. The fielding was sluggish and despite the poor bowling, South Africa probably gifted the Irish 15 to 20 runs with poor ground fielding.
They started as badly with the bat as they did with the ball, losing both openers inside the Power Play and then failed to come to terms with the slow pitch and the fact that Ireland’s bowlers delivered the ball with very little pace in the case of the spinners, while the seamers mixed up their pace. “It was extremely slow,” Luus said of the surface.
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“Our lines and lengths were a bit off. We bowled two lengths at the start and too many short balls which is not ideal. The pace bowlers could have gone with a few extra slower balls.”
All of which will be worked on at practice over the weekend. “Only having two days to prepare made it quite difficult,” Luus remarked. “It’s good to have that knowledge now, we can take that into our training sessions this weekend and be ready for the game on Monday.”
South Africa will be desperate for an overall improvement in the second match, and if as Luus and Moreeng have stated this series is about assessing options with the Commonwealth Games in mind, there may be a change or two for Monday’s encounter. Delmi Tucker and Raisibe Ntozakhe may be options to fill the spinning spot in place of Nonkululeko Mlaba, who had a poor outing on Friday, while Ayabonga Khaka, who wasn’t considered in the first match may be worth a look as well.
Monday’s match starts at 5.30pm
SA SQUAD: Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Trisha Chetty, Nadine de Klerk, Lara Goodall, Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Sune Luus (capt), Nonkululeko Mlaba, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Tumi Sekhukhune, Andrie Steyn, Chloe Tryon, Delmi Tucker, Laura Wolvaardt
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