‘Disappointing to see batsmen succumb so easily’ ›

PORTELIZABETH:SOUTH Africa coach Ottis Gibson blamed his batsmen for the series loss to India. The Proteas went down to India by 73 runs to trail 1-4 in the six-match series with one match to go.

Gibson said he was positive despite the team missing some of its stars.

“I thought at the halfway stage we gave ourselves a very good chance to keep ourselves in the series. We came this afternoon very optimistic that the series was still there to be drawn. To bowl them out for 270-odd was a great effort from the bowlers, and we let ourselves down with the bat. There’s not a lot more to say than that. It’s something we have been talking about for five games now. We showed at the Wanderers that we can play better than we have done, but tonight (Tuesday) was disappointing.”

Gibson said that although he has a set of players who he believes are capable of winning and can adapt to certain conditions, they just didn’t live up to the expectations.

“You want to have a group of players who can adapt to certain conditions and play accordingly. We know we have those players but they haven’t produced it in this series, which is disappointing. The way we have played as a group at certain times has been disappointing but especially tonight because there was still a lot to play for in the series,” he added.

“To be fair we were 50 for none and we lost a wicket with four balls to go in the Powerplay to their best bowler. Bumrah has been their fast bowler all summer. We lost a couple more shortly thereafter and that set us back. Hash worked really hard to try and rebuild but every time we rebuilt we lost wickets. With the four bowlers, we needed our best six or seven batsmen to bat the bulk of the overs and they weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Asked why the hosts have struggled to get the Indian top order out, Gibson said they haven’t controlled the length.

“The Indian top order is very experienced and they’ve played well. They’ve seen off the new ball or been able to score freely. We haven’t been able to hold the length very well. I keep saying to the bowlers that in order to control the scoring rate you have to control your length. Otherwise you can’t stop batsmen from scoring, and we’ve not been able to control length as well as we should be doing at this level and that’s allowed them to score quite freely at times.

“We succumbed quite easily, to be bowled out in 42 overs is very disappointing from a batting point of view. Even with the bowling there were some soft boundaries, which has gone on the whole series. So just a bit more fight with the bat.” PORT ELIZABETH : For a team that has won all the major one-day tournaments --- World Cup, Champions Trophy and multination World Series Cup, victories in bilateral series or tri-series in top cricketing nations have been few and far between.

While they have won just two of the eight bilateral series in England – one was given on run rate, they have clinched just one tri-series tournament in Australia with no wins in bilateral series. On Tuesday, they finally clinched their first bilateral ODI series in South Africa.

Rohit Sharma, who scored a match-winning century at the St George’s Park here on Tuesday and was also part of the tri-series win in Australia in 2008, said this victory is special.

“This will be right up there. After 25 years, we have won a series in South Africa. Not the easiest place to play cricket, defeffort initely not the easiest place to win a series. We won the tri-series in Australia. Even that series was quite tough. For me, it is difficult to compare the two. I mean it is difficult to say which series means more but I think this series means a lot to us. The way we played from the first game, we have dominated the series.”

Skipper Virat Kohli said, “Only one team had the pressure of losing this series (South Africa). It is history and the guys have worked hard for it. Ever since the third Test in Johannesburg, it’s been a good time for us. It’s been a collective to create history.”

Rohit added that the dominant performance will go a long way in helping the team get into the habit of winning overseas.

“It was a dominant performance from us. It will only give us confidence as a team to go outside and keep winning those series,” said Rohit.

Rohit felt the victory has been made possible because of the contribution of the top three and felt that the middle order or the lower order hasn’t got enough opportunity to bat.

“Whatever series we have played before, in India and in Champions Trophy, a lot of the scoring has been done by the top three guys. It augurs well for the team. We always talk about batsmen batting through the innings. That is what we are trying to do. The top three have got the best opportunity because they get to play maximum balls. So our three’s responsibility is that if we are set then we have to try and play long.”

You want to have a group of players who can adapt to certain conditions and play accordingly. OTTIS GIBSON, SA coach on team’s poor show