Coming into this T20 World Cup on the back of seven consecutive victories, South Africa were considered the dark horse in Group 1, especially with their bowling unit. The opening fixture, however, exposed their weaknesses as they lost to Australia by five wickets in the last over of the match.
Captain Temba Bavuma got off to a flying start, taking 11 runs off Mitchell Starc in the first over. But it was short-lived as he was castled by Glenn Maxwell’s quick and straight delivery. Josh Hazlewood then bowled his perfect trademark line and length to send Rassie van der Dussen back. In the fifth over, Quinton de Kock tried his go-to ramp shot but the ball bounced onto the stumps, after which the Proteas never really recovered.
29/3 in six overs soon became 83/7 in 15.2. The collapse exposed their flawed batting unit, where everyone apart from Aiden Markram (40 off 36) struggled. Speaking in the post-match presentation, the SA skipper conceded that it was an execution failure rather than mental.
“The guys have prepared quite well in terms of trying to deal with mental pressures. I can’t remember a time when our batting collapsed like that. It’s not every day when your top seven, bar Aiden Markram, all fail. It was an execution thing.”
The South African bowlers did a fantastic job to make a game out of it, with Anrich Nortje leading the charge with his 2 for 21 in four. Kagiso Rabada looked the best he has for a while, picking 1 for 28 while the spin duo of Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj also picked a wicket each.
Bavuma admitted that the bowlers did a good job to drag the match to the last over but the batters needed to do more.
“118 was definitely not a par score. Anything around 150-160 would have been competitive. We just didn’t get enough with the bat and it was always going to be tough for the bowlers, and it was a good effort from them to get it to this stage.”
South Africa will take on the West Indies, who are coming off a huge defeat against England, at Dubai on Tuesday, October 26.
