Proteas look to change the series direction
THE Proteas landed in a north-easterly gale here yesterday afternoon, knowing they are in danger of being blown away by their visitors for the second time in consecutive ODI series.
The Black Caps will know that the last time they toured here, in January 2013, they beat the Proteas 2-1 in the ODI series; it’s a result they will hope to repeat despite the fact that they have toured without some of their best players. If you’re a believer in momentum, it’s the Kiwis who possess it after having thrashed South Africa by eight wickets with 33 balls to spare in Potchefstroom on Sunday.
Proteas’ assistant coach Adrian Birrell is under no illusions about the situation. “We’ve been disappointing on this tour – and in Bangladesh as well – even when we’ve won matches. We’ve been careless at various times in all three departments of the game. We simply haven’t put our ‘A’ game together.
“Of course it’s something we’re worried about, but we’re determined to work hard and put it all together on Wednesday (tomorrow).”
Birrell said there had been some good individual performances, but “collectively we simply haven’t done it yet. So far we’ve played in fits and starts. We need to click, but when you’re lacking in confidence that’s something that can be quite elusive.”
The Proteas will, at least, feel more at home at Kingsmead than Potch. In Durban the pitch will offer them some pace and bounce. Birrell said the conditions for the T20 in Durban had been “excellent” and the South Africans responded with one of their better performances.
The pitch for tomorrow’s game is looking a bit whiter than the relatively green T20 strip but groundsman Wilson Ngobese said he expected it to play in a similar manner. “It may be a little slower, but there is moisture there and if you look closely, the grass is alive,” he said yesterday.
This almost certainly means that the Proteas will not play two spinners at Kingsmead – something that’s a rarity at the best of times. The likelihood is that Kagiso Rabada, who sat out Sunday’s match, will return for tomorrow’s game, probably at the expense of left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso, It would be surprising if any other changes were made.
What was particularly disappointing about Sunday’s defeat was the inability of the Proteas batsmen to adjust to the slow pace of the Potch pitch. Perhaps if Hashim Amla and Morné van Wyk had batted through the first PowerPlay they might have worked out the conditions for themselves and they and their teammates would have realised it was not a 300 pitch. But one of South Africa’s major problems on this tour is that they haven’t had good starts, either with bat or ball.
“There’s no doubt Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, and Kane Williamson have hurt us with the bat. But we’ve missed some chances in the field so we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that,” said Birrell.