The Proteas learnt more lessons from another chastening defeat against New Zealand in Auckland on Friday, suffering a nine-wicket loss at a venue where South African sports teams have largely encountered pain.
Eden Park saw both the men’s and women’s Proteas teams lose in the third instalment of the five-part double-header T20 series, with Keshav Maharaj’s group again struggling with the bat on a lively drop-in surface.
The tourists scored just 136/9, a minor recovery after they were rocked by the loss of three wickets in the power play and then another mini collapse in which they lost three for 24 runs in 25 balls around the halfway stage of the innings.
Despite some problems against the new ball, New Zealand romped to victory for the loss of Devon Conway for 39, reaching the target with 22 balls to spare.
“You can understand the inconsistency because of the inexperience but that should not be an excuse,” said Maharaj, who is standing in as captain while Aiden Markram is given a break.
“We have to look at ourselves, put away our egos on these kinds of wickets which don’t allow you to play with the freedom you’d like. The guys are professional and mature enough to find ways to combat it.”
In the two previous matches South Africa had won by seven wickets chasing 92 and then lost by 68 runs in pursuit of 176.
The huge fluctuations are understandable given the squad contained five players who hadn’t been capped in a T20 previously, and one of those, the promising Jordan Hermann was ruled out of the series after the first game with a hamstring injury.
Only Maharaj, George Linde and Jason Smith were part of the T20 World Cup, while Gerald Coetzee is returning to the international arena after a lengthy period in which he was sidelined by injury, and the likes of Ottneil Baartman, Lutho Sipamla and even Wiaan Mulder aren’t regular starters in the T20 format.
“The ability to adapt in situations quicker rather than later is something these guys will get back to domestic cricket and implement when they come onto spicy wickets like that,” Maharaj said of one of the lessons that was learnt on Friday.
It was a lively track that had lots of steepling bounce, which the Kiwi bowlers used better than the Proteas.
Lockie Ferguson took 1/9 and was named player of the match.
South Africa’s top three batters all fell against the short ball, apparently distracted by a shorter boundary at a venue where the reconfigured playing area — at a venue more famous for hosting rugby — causes tricks for batters’ minds.
“After losing a couple of early wickets, it seemed like the only way [to get the innings going] was to target the short boundary,” said Maharaj.
“It’s a bit disappointing to say the least. There was a lot of discussion about the short boundary and the coaching staff mentioned that teams which look too much into the short boundary shoot themselves in the foot, and that is exactly what happened today.”
Sunday’s fourth match is also at a rugby venue, though the dimensions at Wellington’s Sky Stadium are not as severe as Eden Park.
In addition to New Zealand giving senior players including Conway, Ferguson and skipper Mitchell Santner a break for the remainder of the series, the Proteas may also draw solace from knowing that the Springboks have turned Wellington into something of a fortress in the past decade.
“Maybe we see some positives from that,” said Maharaj. “But I think it’s about focusing on ourselves and how we go about our game.
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