Wounded Proteas gear up for Aussies
THE penchant of Mthatha Bucks being involved in stalemates continued when they were held to a goalless draw by Black Leopards at home over the weekend.
Bucks were hoping to bounce back to winning ways after being held to a 1-1 draw against the University of Pretoria last weekend.
However, Bucks assistant coach Mondli Funani is still optmistic that his side will get it right despite being left with only eight games.
“I think we played very well and our guys controlled the game from start to finish, but then we were just unlucky with our finishing,” he said.
Funani opted to look for the positives arguing that the point they earned from the match has helped them amass 20 points on the logstandings to remain at position 15.
He said he was satisfied with the way his boys handled themselves against a team that has been doing well in the league and has collected 31 points.
Funani chose to pay tribute to the opposition rather than blame his players.
”And I also have to commend the opposition because their goalkeeper kept them in the game, and I think this is one of our best performances here at home by far,” he said.
While the draw at home felt like a loss, Funani showered his newly acquired goalkeeper Olivier Kwizera with praises.
Bucks signed Kwizera from Free State Stars and had to throw him into the match despite him carrying an injury.
“He did us proud because he also kept us in the game, because the last save he made was brilliant and he’s made a huge different since joining us, because he has stabilised our goalkeeping department.”
Funani said even though they played their second draw at home, there was nothing to worry about, but he was hoping they would at least get four points from these home games.
He said the 23 goals they scored against the 32 they have conceded would be a thing of the past, because of the tough competition in their squad with everyone fighting to prove their worth to the team.
“Like I said, it’s just that we need to work more on our finishing, especially our movements on the box, because our boys like to wait for the ball in the box.
“They don’t make things happen. They wait for the opponents to make mistakes, then they capitalise on them.”
Leopards coach Joel Masutha said it was a tough game that was fairly balanced in terms of opportunities, so under those circumstance they would gladly take the point home.
“I think this point will come in handy towards the end of the season, and I’m also impressed with fighting spirit of Mthatha Bucks because they don’t look like a team that is down there on the log-standings.
“I believe with this spirit they will survive [relegation], but at the same time we also need to look at our goals and they are still doable.”
Masutha said when the season closes he wanted Lidoda Duvha to finish in the top three teams in the NFD. SOUTH Africans searching for positives in the debris of India’s tour should be pleased to know that their team have stopped telling groundsmen how to do their jobs.
And a good thing too‚ what with a series of four Tests against Australia starting at Kingsmead on Thursday.
“We have to get to Durban and see what we get‚” SA coach Ottis Gibson said on Saturday.
“Everybody knows what happened at the Wanderers‚ so we’ve left the groundsmen to prepare the best possible pitches that they can this time.”
The Wanderers earned three demerit points for the pitch prepared there for the third Test last month‚ which was temporarily suspended after Dean Elgar was hit on the helmet by a short delivery – the last straw after batsmen had taken umpteen blows on their hands and bodies.
Blame that on the bee the South Africans had in their bonnet about leaning on groundsmen to skew conditions further in their favour than they would normally be.
Gibson spoke after India underlined their superiority over South Africa this summer by winning the third T20 at Newlands by seven runs to seal the series 2-1.
Virat Kohli’s men won twice as many matches as the home side on their tour and claimed two of the three trophies.
The Indians were dominant in the ODI series which they owned 5-1 to push South Africa’s 2-1 success in the Test series far back in the memory.
South Africa were hamstrung by injuries to Faf du Plessis‚ AB de Villiers‚ Quinton de Kock and Dale Steyn.
Of those players only De Kock has been confirmed as good to go against the Aussies on Thursday.
“Our captain missing [Du Plessis] has been a massive loss‚” Gibson said.
“I’m not sure that AB will be 100% but he’ll be somewhere near and he can take his place in the team.
“We’ve missed the seniors. Having them back will give everybody a lift.”
The upside is that several young players were given opportunities to stake their claims‚ and they took them encouragingly often.
“We’ve seen some exciting new players in the one-day series‚” Gibson said.
“Lungi Ngidi made a debut. Heinrich Klaasen made a debut‚ and he’s been excellent.
“Dala made a debut in this T20 series also was also very good.
“We saw a little bit of Christiaan Jonker [on Saturday]‚ and he played an outstanding innings.
“The result of the series is hard to take but you have to look forward to the future‚ and the future looks for the some of the youngsters like it’s going to be bright.”
Fast bowler Ngidi took match figures of 7/90 on his Test debut in Centurion last month and was South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in the ODIs.
Klaasen played important innings in both white-ball series and topped the batting averages for the home side in the ODIs.
In the T20s no SA bowler came close to Dala’s return of seven wickets at an average of 15.71.
Jonker played his first game for SA on Saturday and smote a fiery 49 off 24 balls that helped his team run the Indians close.