Proteas bowling under the X-ray
• Rabada s injury opens the door for another bowler ’
SA s bowling came under intense scrutiny after England made light work of what should have been a steep chase in Tuesday s third T20 at Newlands.
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With Kagiso Rabada absent because of injury more ques
‚
tions will be asked of SA s bowl
’
ing in the three-match ODI series that starts at Newlands on Friday.
England are clearly the best limited-overs team in world cricket and while they are still pursuing their rebuilding project they are miles ahead of the Proteas.
SA bowling coach Charl Langeveldt admitted they are going to miss Rabada especially
‚
when it comes to dealing with England s crack top order.
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Jason Roy may be struggling for runs and fluency but he is
‚
always a knock away from form while Jonny Bairstow Joe Root
‚
and Eoin Morgan will be in a hurry to sink their teeth into SA s
’
bowling.
KG s [Rabada s] massive. He
’
always strikes with the new ball. We speak a lot about being able to take wickets in the first powerplay and shift the pressure to the batting team. In saying that
‚
it s another opportunity for a
’
youngster to put up their hand
‚”
Langeveldt said.
A lot of debate hinged on the need for the sixth bowler in the T20 series. With more overs
‚
juggling resources properly becomes a priority one of them
‚ being Andile Phehlukwayo. The all-rounder missed the T20 series and his absence was felt keenly on the slower surfaces where his cutters and slower deliveries would have come in handy.
There is also the batting depth that is currently being provided by George Linde but
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Langeveldt said Phehlukwayo is an important part of the SA bowling attack.
When you ve got six
“’
bowlers in your team Andile is
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one of those options and he s
’
been great for us. When you look at his ODI record it s spe
‚ ’
cial and he does give us an option at the back end of the innings. If he is fit we ll look at
‚ ’
that and make a judgment based on what we see Langeveldt
‚”
said.
The Proteas will also be without Faf du Plessis who has
‚
been rested for the 50-over engagement while Pite van
‚
Biljon Bjorn Fortuin and Reeza
‚
Hendricks have returned to their franchises.
Young Lions fast bowler Lutho Sipamla who was
‚
impressive in pre-Covid-19 engagements has been retained
‚
despite stinging public criticism of his showing on Tuesday. What seems to be forgotten in the vitriol is that the 22-year-old was playing in his first outing in any form of cricket since March.
Langeveldt defended the talented youngster saying Sipamla
‚
just happened to run headlong into England s imperious batting
’ unit. He hasn t played in a while
“’ ‚
so it s been hard on him. With a
’
top team like England they were
‚
always going to target him. You need to speak to him analyse his
‚
game and try calm him down
‚”
Langeveldt said.
We tried to prepare him but
‚
as you saw in the game it s hard
‚ ’
when you re put under pressure
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especially against a top team like England.”
England captain Eoin Morgan said there was nothing untoward about a new system of signals from analysts in the dressing room used to send messages to him on the field during limited overs internationals.
It is 100% within the spirit of
“
the game,” he said on Thursday..
The system was used as England swept the three Twenty 20 internationals against SA with England s analyst Nathan
’
Lemon placing a series of large numbers or letters on clipboards, that were visible from the field, and were meant to help Morgan in his decision-making.
There is nothing untoward about it. It s about maximising
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information we are taking in and measuring it against things, like the coach s recommendation or
’
the data,” Morgan said. There s always been con
“’
stant communication, verbal or physical, from the change room to the field to help improve my decisions as captain.
It s something that we re
“’ ’
experimenting with during the game to see if we can improve our performance on the field.”