SA should be wary of Bloem
It is part of the strangeness of sport that those who could explain what went wrong rarely turn up at media conferences.
So it was that Lungi Ngidi and Heinrich Klaasen were trotted out in the wake of SA’s unconvincing display in the first oneday international against Zimbabwe in Kimberley on Sunday.
Ngidi took 3/19 in 8.1 overs‚ the sharp edge of the axe that condemned Zimbabwe to a miserable total of 117.
Klaasen’s 44 was the best effort in SA’s winning reply of 119/5 in 26.1 overs.
What is there to explain? How a batting line-up far superior to Zimbabwe’s bowlers managed to lose five wickets in pursuit of so small a target.
Maybe Aiden Markram should have been made available to talk about his thinking when‚ having been dropped four overs earlier‚ he was caught off a no-ball and heaved a catch to mid-off in the same over.
Or Dean Elgar might have discussed playing his first ODI in almost three years‚ and about steering a leading edge to third man after scoring two off 10.
Or JP Duminy to unpack why he chose to field first in conditions that would have challenged his batsmen to come through 50 overs of application and discipline.
Or Dale Steyn to tell us how he felt about being left out despite those conditions‚ and how he might find his way back into an attack that took their chance to fire on all cylinders.
Instead we had Ngidi — top score in ODIs six‚ average 11.00 — offering batting advice.
“The wicket was difficult‚” he said. “But we saw how [Heinrich] Klaasen batted — if it’s a good ball then you let it go and you put away the bad one.
“Driving was difficult‚ depending on the length. If you pitched it too full it was really easy to hit. But if you hit that good length it was really difficult to drive.”
Klaasen‚ too‚ confined much of his input to the pitch: “There was up and down movement