Proteas spin woes continue
DE KOCK: LAYS THE BLAME ON FIRST INNINGS COLLAPSE
There are no doubt several areas for the Proteas to improve on following their defeat by seven wickets in the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi yesterday, but captain Quinton de Kock chose to focus on the first-innings batting collapse as the root cause of their loss.
Having been able to bat first after winning the toss, South Africa could only post 220 all out as they collapsed from 108/2. The bowlers fought back admirably to reduce Pakistan to 33/4 at the end of the first day, but excellent batting led by centurion Fawad Alam saw the home side reach 308/8 at stumps on the second day, with the Proteas dropping a couple of crucial catches in a generally poor fielding display.
A woeful bowling performance on the third morning saw Pakistan’s tail add 70 runs off 74 balls and the Proteas had a deficit of 158 on first innings.
Gutsy half-centuries by Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen brought them back into the match, but South Africa lost three wickets in the last five overs of the day.
That collapse continued yesterday as they were bowled out for 245, losing their last nine wickets for 70 runs.
Pakistan knocked off their target of 88 with few alarms.
“The first-innings batting was the big cause of our loss, there were some very soft dismissals, just being soft mentally. We adjusted in the second innings and we learnt a lot through Rassie and Aiden to take forward. The bowlers did really well, they showed great aggression and accuracy, but Pakistan just batted very well against us. Only getting 220 in the first innings was where we let ourselves down the most.
“On that pitch it definitely wasn’t good enough, especially when batting first. We’ve spoken about the collapses, but if we knew how to fix it we wouldn’t do it in the first place. We seem to get bogged down and then you try and find a way to score. But Pakistan showed us that you needed to stick in there and dig deep with the way the pitch played, like Rassie and Aiden did in our second innings,” De Kock said after the chastening defeat.
While Pakistan were boosted by top-class leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s seven wickets, South Africa’s
plan to power up their spin attack with the selection of leftarm wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was scuppered when he pulled out shortly before the toss with a back spasm.
Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Nauman Ali took 7/73 in 42.3 overs on debut while Keshav Maharaj had to settle for 4/102 in 34.1 overs, while George Linde bowled 16 wicketless overs.
But De Kock refused to say the spin bowling results made the difference.
“It wasn’t really the bowlers’ fault we lost, the batting made the difference,” said De Kock.