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Proteas need to shake off this loss and do better in second ODI

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Shoriful Islam of Bangladesh celebrates after dismissing Janneman Malan of South Africa during the 2022 1st Betway ODI match at Supersport Park in Centurion on 18 March 2022. Picture: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix

Other than talking about what went wrong, why it went wrong and how to fix it, there’s little that the Proteas could do in terms of training before Sunday’s second match at the Wanderers.

Johannesburg – Temba Bavuma was understandably disappointed and in search of answers after South Africa’s below par performance in the opening betway One-Day International against Bangladesh on Friday.

Other than talking about what went wrong, why it went wrong and how to fix it, there’s little that the Proteas could do in terms of training before Sunday’s second match at the Wanderers.

That they must play better is obvious. Can they? Absolutely.

Bangladesh was very good on Friday, because their players were clear about what they wanted to do, with both bat and ball. With the former, they stayed patient up front, happy to see off the new ball, keep wickets in hand, because that allowed them to take calculated risks in the second half of their innings.

Bavuma mentioned how he was disappointed that his bowlers didn’t make the necessary adjustments once the hardness went out of the ball.

“That first 10-15 overs, we had good control (but) in the middle (overs), in terms of plans and adapting to conditions, we weren’t on point. It took us a couple of overs, to adjust to what the conditions were asking of us.”

Much of that was down to execution.

Lungi Ngidi had a bad afternoon, conceding 75 runs and giving up a host of boundary balls particularly off the last delivery in an over. Although Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj, were reasonable, that is no longer good enough to beat this Bangladesh team, who are experienced, skillful and extremely determined.

Andile Phehlukwayo is inconsistent and has been for a long time, but it appears the management, selectors and even Bavuma are happy to deal with that, hoping that he’ll just have a good day.

Overall the attack lacked intensity. Bangladesh’s quick bowlers were sharper and bowled with more energy which meant that when they delivered their ‘change ups,’ those balls were effective.

South Africa’s batting never really recovered from the top order collapsing to 36/3 and while there have been many innovations in the modern One-Day game, one aspect that never seems to change is the need for big runs from one of the top three batters. Bangladesh got half centuries from two of their top order, South Africa’s highest score among the top three was 31.

With the ball and in the top order is where South Africa need to take the biggest steps at the Wanderers in order to level the series.

There was still no word from the ICC over whether South Africa would be sanctioned for a slow overate in Friday night’s encounter. Bavuma’s team have already had a point docked during last summer’s series with Pakistan, and given their perilous position on the ICC Super League table, which determines the automatic qualifiers for next year’s World Cup, they can ill-afford being penalised for not bowling their overs in the requisite time.

“It’s an indicator of your intensity in the field; we did speak about it, and wanted to focus on that a lot more,” said Bavuma.

As for Bangladesh, there is little that the head coach Russell Domingo can ask of his players other than to repeat what they did in that first match. They executed their strategies superbly, and the only message will be that they must shake off the joy of that first win on South African soil, and set their focus on the ‘Bullring,’ because a series win, really would be something to savour.

The second ODI starts at 10am.

Squads

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (capt), Keshav Maharaj, Quinton de Kock, Zubayr Hamza, Marco Jansen, Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne.

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal (Captain), Liton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hassan, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Shakib Al-Hasan.

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