Proteas are alarmingly inconsistent
SOUTH Africa remain alarmingly inconsistent regardless of the format and it must be a concern heading into a summer that features a series against the planet’s best Test team and before then a T20 World Cup.
There was some good to come out of the series as both Keshav Maharaj and coach Mark Boucher mentioned on Tuesday. The top order, functioning well in two out of three matches, gets a tick, but all their hard work was undone, when in the most important game of the series they folded so catastrophically.
With Quinton de Kock’s place secure in the opening berth and Temba Bavuma as captain having to slot in at No 3, Aiden Markram may have to grow accustomed to life in the middle order. SA have a hole to fill in the order between Rassie van der Dussen, and when he returns David Miller. Heinrich Klaasen played competently, but didn’t land a knockout blow as far as cementing future selection is concerned.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the limited-overs teams is who to pick in the seam bowling all-rounder department.
There are currently three candidates; Andile Phehlukwayo, Wiaan Mulder and Dwaine Pretorius. The latter played no part in the series while Phehlukwayo played in all three matches but was largely anonymous, scoring 26 runs in three innings.
It means the strategy of having three front-line spinners – as was the case in the last two matches in Sri Lanka – is always fraught with jeopardy because the starting team looks a batsman short. The selectors hedged their bets in picking both Mulder and Phehlukwayo in the last match, thus having three seamers, along with Kagiso Rabada, but from a batting perspective, it left the Proteas light.
Rabada, by his standards was poor in the first and third match of the series.
The spinning options worked. Maharaj was superb throughout the series, and seemed to enjoy captaining when Bavuma was forced to abandon the tour with a fractured thumb.
Utilising four spinners in the final match, showed good awareness on Maharaj’s part and it would have provided much valuable data for the Proteas as they put in place the pieces for the strategies they hope to utilise in 2023.