Proteas have chance to make amends

De Villiers fined for slow over-rate in lost first ODI

Things went from bad to worse for South Africa when captain AB de Villiers was fined for maintaining a slow over-rate in the first one-day international against England in Leeds on Wednesday.

De Villiers and his team were shown up in all departments of a match England won by 72 runs.

SA will have the opportunity to put matters right in the second of the three matches in Southampton tomorrow.

But the shadow of De Villiers’ indiscretion – it cost him 20% of his match fee – will linger uneasily because it guarantees a ban should he transgress again.

The International Cricket Council’s code of conduct says a “second offence in the same format of the game within 12 months” will incur “the imposition of a suspension for the immediately subsequent one international match in the same format of the game as that in which the offence occurred”.

De Villiers will not need reminding of all that‚ having been in the same situation he is in now after South Africa’s match against India at the 2015 World Cup.

It will not sit well with South Africans, who have high hopes for their team in next month’s Champions Trophy, that their captain and star batsman is a serial offender in a basic area of managing his team on the field.

Not that SA had a firm enough grip on any aspect of Wednesday’s match.

England’s 339/6 is the highest total in the 39 ODIs played at Headingley‚ and South Africa were in the running only while Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis were at the crease.

Amla scored 73 and Du Plessis made 67‚ but what the visitors needed was an innings more like England captain Eoin Morgan’s 107.

“Unfortunately, neither of us managed to get through and get a hundred‚ which makes it easier for the batsmen coming in‚” Amla told reporters in Leeds. “But we both got out in quick succession. –