Proteas ‘collapso’ performances a concern after second defeat

ANOTHER match, another collapse. Against the West Indies in Guyana the Proteas lost seven wickets for 28 runs; on Saturday against Australia in St Kitts it was seven for 42, as they virtually gifted the match to Steve Smith’s men by 36 runs after earlier looking in complete control during their run chase.

For Faf du Plessis, who played superbly for his 63 on his return from a broken finger, the South African batsmen were far more culpable the second time around than in Guyana.

“In Guyana, the conditions were much more challenging for the batsmen, here it was a case of batters getting in and batters getting out,” he said after the match. “Our batsmen lost us the game. We were brilliant with the bat for 35 overs and then we lost the game in five overs. Against a team with the quality of Australia you can’t afford to have a period where you lose concentration. That’s what happened; we almost just handed it (the game) over to them,” he said after the team’s disappointing defeat.

Du Plessis didn’t look for excuses, saying that the batting conditions were “excellent” and that when he and captain AB de Villiers were together he felt “in complete control of the game” and that it was “almost impossible” to lose it.

Earlier, man-of-the-match David Warner struck his sixth one-day international hundred, and his first outside Australia, to anchor the innings. He received excellent assistance from Usman Khawaja and captain Steve Smith, who struck half-centuries, but even so the general consensus was that Australia, who scored 288/6, were at least 30 runs short of what they really needed to feel confident of victory.

No wonder the Proteas – who felt that in general they had bowled well – believed victory was within their grasp on a pitch where the ball came on, the spin was less pronounced, the boundaries shorter and the outfield lightning fast.

After the early loss of Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla and Du Plessis, pictured, hardly put a foot wrong as they added 105 in 18 overs for the second wicket. But even the loss of Amla, well caught low down at short extra cover off Josh Hazlewood, didn’t rock Du Plessis’s boat. “My wicket (caught at backward point off Mitchell Starc) gave them a sniff, but with AB and JP (Duminy) together I still felt we were in control.”

Thereafter, it was a familiar tale of wickets falling unnecessarily. “It was a case of us giving soft wickets away to the Australians,” Du Plessis said.

With the other topline batsmen all gone, the dismissal of Duminy, who holed out to deep midwicket off leg-spinner Adam Zampa, was the final straw that broke the back of the innings as the last five wickets fell for 16 runs with Zampa, Hazlewood and Starc helping themselves to three apiece.

Asked what the Proteas could do to shorten the tail and still retain the same balance, Du Plessis said the return of the injured Chris Morris was key. “Chris is the only guy who can add more in the batting department. But he’s not 100 percent fit.”