Proteas seek more polished performance against mighty England

Aiden Markram’s Proteas checked into their St Lucia Hotel at 1am on Thursday, with their campaign in the T20 World Cup on track but the quality of their performances still a concern. 

In contrast to England, who stamped their mark on the tournament with a compelling display to dispatch the West Indies on Thursday morning, the Proteas continue to just get by.

South Africa meet England at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, St Lucia on Friday (4.30pm SA time).

The Proteas' 18-run win against the US in Antigua on Wednesday was largely comfortable, but they created unnecessary stress with limp bowling during the latter stages of the Americans' innings. 

Conceding 64 runs in four overs allowed the US a peek at an upset and took a lot of the gloss off a victory in which South Africa produced their best batting performance of the tournament. 

They can ill-afford such charity against England and the West Indies, their next two opponents in the Super Eights.

Like the Proteas, the English have ridden their luck to get in the second phase of the World Cup. While Aiden Markram’s team have had a strong wind in New York and a fortuitous deflection off the back of Nepalese batter, Gulsan Jha, go their way, the defending champions dodged the weather and a determined Scotland to get into the last eight.

Once there, Jos Buttler’s team thumped the co-hosts with all their star players delivering. 

South Africa, meanwhile, continue to search for what Markram earlier this week described as a perfect performance. The seam bowlers delivered in the first three games, Tabraiz Shamsi did the same in the fourth and the middle order bailed out the top order, to keep South Africa's winning streak intact. 

They will need more polished displays if they are to get on top of the English and the West Indies, however. “You try to time your run perfectly — things don’t always work out that way — but if you can start putting complete games of cricket together and give yourselves a crack to get into the semifinals, then you are one or two games away from doing something special,” Markram said. 

In one sense it is encouraging the Proteas seem to be building towards delivering a more rounded performance. But it has also been the case in South Africa's chequered World Cup history that they have ambled through a tournament and, when the pressure hits, folded. 

There were elements of that in the field on Wednesday, in that period between the 15th and 18th overs as Andries Gous and Harmeet Singh played with more aggression. A couple of fielding errors, along with bowlers missing their mark, created tension.

Fortunately Kagiso Rabada showed his class at a crucial moment to seal the win, but it will be a period the players will pore over in their post-match debrief. The belief remains strong, according to Rabada. 

“There is no point in saying about it, we take it game by game. The belief is there, if you don’t have that, pack your bags and go home,” he said.

England have better batters than the US and their line-up goes deeper, which will demand greater precision from the Proteas with the ball. Conditions at the Daren Sammy Stadium will determine whether they stick with both front-line spinners in the starting line-up. England used seven overs of spin against the West Indies, with Adil Rashid’s’ four-over spell, in which he took 1/21, proving vital in the outcome. 

The Proteas’ net run rate also took a hit, with the smaller margin of victory against the US leaving them second behind England after the first round of pool matches in the Super Eights. That could leave them needing to beat the West Indies under the lights at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Monday morning (SA time), to secure a semifinal spot.