Proteas barely break sweat in easy win against UAE

The Proteas followed a messy bowling and fielding performance with a thunderous batting display to finish the first group phase of the T20 World Cup with a comfortable win against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Delhi.

Wednesday’s match was rendered meaningless by results earlier in the week, allowing the Proteas to make four changes to the starting team that defeated New Zealand last Saturday.

Despite the changes, the Proteas were far too strong for the associate nation, running away with a six-wicket victory to maintain their unbeaten record at the tournament.

Kwena Maphaka, Anrich Nortje and Jason Smith were all given their first chances to play in the competition, a decision that will be beneficial should there be injuries in the Super Eights phase that starts at the weekend.

Maphaka in particular looked like someone in need of match time as he struggled with line and length in his first over in which he delivered three wides. The 19-year-old missed a portion of the season with a hamstring injury, didn’t make the impact he would have liked in the SA20 and was also off the mark in the West Indies series.

Encouragingly he improved the more he bowled on Wednesday — and though it was against a lesser batting-up, his final over in which he conceded four runs was much more controlled.

Nortje, who was bashed around by the West Indies and then in a warm-up match by India — conceding more than 50 runs in each match — was also much better than those performances, finishing with 2/28 against the UAE.

Of the seamers, especially in the power play, he at least bowled the best line, targeting the stumps, something Maphaka and Kagiso Rabada struggled to do.

George Linde will also draw confidence from his performance, in which he took 1/17, with his dismissal of UAE captain Muhammad Waseem, who smacked 22 off 12 balls, providing the control Aiden Markram needed after the sloppy start from the seamers.

South Africa’s catching, which had been excellent in the first three matches, was dreadful on Wednesday. They dropped three catches:

• the first was by Quinton de Kock, a skier for which he offered Rabada an apology;
• Corbin Bosch also dropped a sitter off Rabada; while
• Smith missed a relay/boundary catch after dropping the ball passed to him by Nortje.

The Proteas will hope the misses don’t become a habit ahead of Sunday’s first Super Eight match against India in Ahmedabad.

Aside from the silly mistake in the field, Bosch was superb, taking 3/12, and provided a reminder he can’t be ignored even when Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj return to the starting team.

Markram (28 off 11 balls), Ryan Rickelton (30 off 16) and Dewald Brevis (36 off 25) finished off an easy win, reaching the target of 123 in the 14th over.

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