SA lose the plot, now for real Test
AS the runs required for Bangladesh to make history on Wednesday ticked down into single figures, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma was already trying to figure out how the heck this had happened.
In reflecting on his team’s 2-1 one-day international series defeat, Bavuma was almost apologetic about referencing his side’s 3-0 clean sweep of India two months ago.
That was the blueprint for the Proteas in the 50-over format. Back then they played with intensity and flair, and showed the resilience that he has demanded. It was absent against Bangladesh, and Bavuma couldn’t fathom out why.
“I was asking myself from the first game why we’d performed so poorly because the standards and intensity against India were on another level,” Bavuma said in his television interview.
“Was it complacency? Were we expecting things to happen?”
Fifteen minutes later in his virtual interaction with the rest of the media, Bavuma was still unclear.
“From a confidence point of view, again I have to reference the India series. Coming out of that series there was a lot of confidence and belief amongst the guys individually and as a team,” said Bavuma.
“Maybe it could have been a case of us not paying respect to the processes which allowed those positive results to come about and just expecting things to go our way.
“That’s at the top of my head. It’s still a question to ask myself and a question that will remain relevant in the series ahead.”
Bavuma praised Bangladesh’s skill and execution, the clarity of their game plans, and the way they implemented them, and wondered again why his side were incapable of doing what they had discussed in various strategy meetings.
A historic triumph for Tamim Iqbal’s Tigers was conversely a catastrophic defeat for the Proteas.
Coach Mark Boucher didn’t want to suggest personnel changes were needed; they actually tried that in the series, dropping the out-of-form Aiden Markram and the inconsistent Andile Phehlukwayo. It didn’t help much in the third match, where SA were trounced.
Taskin Ahmed may have finished as the leading wicket-taker, but Boucher reflected on the tentative nature of SA’s batting against Bangladesh’s spinners as an area where the home team failed. He seemed cross that they didn’t play the way that was planned, despite having seen those plans work previously, not just against India.
“We go to Sri Lanka (in 2021) and we play spin well, and then we come back to South Africa and in conditions where it was turning a bit, we just go back to the old way of playing,” Boucher said.
“The belief was not there in that it’s the right way to play against that type of bowling. Maybe the fear of failure was thinking we are going to get out to it, when it is actually the right way to play.”
SA’s next ODI assignment is in England in July. A lot of IPL water will have flowed under the bridge by then, while there will be many hours of head-scratching ahead.
Markram’s lack of form creates a problem regarding the team’s balance because he provides a sixthbowler option.
The seam bowling all-rounder’s spot is a revolving door and weirdly, George Linde, a spin bowling allrounder who played two matches in Sri Lanka, is no longer seen as an option, despite where the World Cup will be played next year (in India).
On that point, perhaps Boucher, Bavuma and the selectors want to ensure they actually qualify first because SA’s position on the ICC World Super League standings is a precarious one.
The ODI series was a disaster, and there is a real risk that all the optimism that emerged after the Tests and ODIs against India will completely evaporate unless the Proteas can win the two-match Test series that starts next Thursday.