JOHANNESBURG - Temba Bavuma described the concession of 66 runs in the last four overs as being “criminal” after his Proteas side were hammered by the West Indies in the fourth T20 International on Thursday night.
South Africa, thanks to spinners, Tabriaz Shamsi (2/13) and George Linde (2/16) had regained the initiative after Aiden Markram had conceded 20 runs when he opened the bowling. They tied down the West Indies effectively after the power play allowing just 44 runs between sixth and sixteenth overs.
And then it all went haywire. Kieron Pollard blasted 25 runs off the 19th over bowled by Kagiso Rabada and along with Fabian Allen the West Indies captain took 18 off the last over by Lungi Ngidi to wrestle control of the match back from the tourists.
“On the bowling front to concede 20 up front will put you under pressure whether you’re bowling first or bowling second; you finish off your bowling innings like that and it doesn’t matter when you’re bowling. To concede 60 in the last four is criminal,” said the South African captain.
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There was no payback from the batsmen after the bowlers had bailed them out in the second and third matches of the series. Again Quinton de Kock was the only batsmen to trouble the West Indies, with the rest of the South Africans failing to come to terms with the manner in which the West Indies, with Dwayne Bravo (4/19) and Pollard (1/24) to the fore, were able to vary their pace.
The West Indies eventually ran out comfortable winners by 21 runs.
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“These guys are experienced, they are playing in conditions they know back to front and we’ve seen a display of their skill and how they’ve been able to adapt and really put our batters under pressure.”
⛔️ RESULT | @windiescricket WIN BY 21 RUNS
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) July 1, 2021
The West Indies have fought their way back into the series after claiming a 21-run victory in the 4th T20I to keep the series alive#WIvSA #ThatsOurGame pic.twitter.com/DpVJijxdAP
While Bavuma said there’d been plenty of team talks about how to improve the batting, none of that has been transferred into any of the matches thus far, bar the importance of dominating the power play. “We’ve identified that the first 10 overs is where it is easier to bat; we’ve been good in the power play managing to get scores in excess of 55. We’ve tried to carry on that momentum through the 7 to 10 over mark."
“The challenge is to keep up the intensity after the 10th over and really set ourselves up to dominate the last 10 overs. That is where we have found it tough. Pace being taken off the ball, the ball getting soft - from a skill point of view, as batters, that is something we also need to figure out. There’s not much time to improve our skills, it’s conversations we need to have now,” Bavuma explained.
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