Africa-Press – South-Africa. Play what’s in front of you and “man-up”.
That’s the cocktail Proteas mentor Mark Boucher believes his troops need to mix if they are to qualify automatically for next year’s 50-over World Cup in India.
South Africa’s mission in that regard suffered a severe blow on Tuesday after their 7-wicket loss to selfsame India not only saw them lose the ODI series 1-2, but also saw them drop vital Super League points – the mechanism for determining the eight teams booking their ticket for the showpiece.
As it stands, the Proteas are languishing in 11th place on that log and need to win their five remaining ODIs – three against England and two against Netherlands – to give themselves the best chance of avoiding having to travel to Zimbabwe in mid-2023 for the qualifying tournament.
“The reason why we’re in this situation is because we haven’t always had continuity within our ODI setup. There have been various reasons for that, players leaving for IPL and Covid, for example. There has been some inconsistencies that have emerged and what we’ve seen now,” said Boucher, who won’t be saddled with that headache anymore because he’s bowing out after the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.
“But we know what is required. The players know what needs to happen come January against England and also against the Netherlands. We’ve got to win those games.
“And if we don’t, we just have to accept that we need to go to Zimbabwe and qualify for the World Cup. We understand the situation we’re in and we’ll just have to man-up and face it when it comes our way.”
Ironically, it was the pressure of improving that log placing that, Boucher intimated, cost them the series because it meant having to stick to a predominantly first-choice squad that showed signs of “mental fatigue”.
Would it have been better to stick with a proverbial backup group in the ODIs while leaving the stars to focus on the T20 bonanza?
“In a perfect world, [yes]. Trust me, we spoke about it. In hindsight, we probably could’ve done it differently with the schedule we had. We saw the benefits of an Indian side that was fresh. They were bouncing around and eager to get out on the field, while our guys were probably a bit fatigued,” said Boucher.
“It’s no excuse, but it’s also difficult for us to know because we don’t have the depth that India has. We are under pressure to win every game with World Cup qualification at the back of our minds.
“So we stuck with the squad we felt was good enough to get the results we want. Keeping the legs and minds fresh might’ve been a better option, but we’ll live and learn.”
Not that Boucher wasn’t disappointed with how meekly his troops capitulated in Delhi, where they were shot out for 99, the Proteas’ fourth-lowest total in their ODI history.
“You can’t expect the players to be at their best for every game, particularly given the schedule we’ve had,” he said.
“That’s when you’ve got to rely on your technical and mental side to pull you through, but I think we’ve been a little bit weak in both those departments.
“Today especially I thought there were some soft dismissals and one or two technical deficiencies on a wicket that was quite uneven in its turn. We were found out there.
“There were little moments in the one-day games where we let ourselves down, especially today where we simply didn’t rock up. Overall, we do understand that while we need to play this series and try to win it, we’ve learnt some important lessons and had some good chats behind closed doors to speak about things we can get a lot better at.
“That will put us in good stead going to Australia, where conditions are different.
“We’re okay at the moment, it’s disappointing to lose but we have massive tournament coming up and that’s the one we’re really gearing ourselves up for.”
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