Africa-Press – South-Africa. South Africa paid the price for a sloppy display with ball and then bat, slumping to a 21-run defeat against New Zealand in their second match of the triangular T20 series in Harare.
The Black Caps recovered from 74/5 halfway through their innings, to register 173/5, thanks to an unbeaten sixth wicket partnership worth 103 between Tim Robinson and debutant Bevon Jacobs.
Despite some thrilling hitting by Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Dewald Brevis, the Proteas’ innings lacked rhythm with too many batters throwing their wickets away. Their skipper Rassie van der Dussen wasn’t too bothered however.
“We just couldn’t get it together with the bat,” said Van der Dussen, who is standing in for Aiden Markram, who is on an extended break after the World Test Championship final.
“There is a certain way that we want to play and you have to take the rough with the smooth. You have to accept that you will get it wrong sometimes, which is why these series’ are there, to try different things and different guys and hone in on a game plan we want to execute. So sometimes you get it wrong, but that’s fine.”
The Proteas, who made three changes to the side that defeated Zimbabwe in the competition’s opening match on Monday, chose to field and dominated the first half of the New Zealand innings. Excellent use of the short ball by Kwena Maphaka and Gerald Coetzee — the latter playing his first international since the Test in Durban last November against Sri Lanka — picked up the wickets of Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell respectively.
Making his T20 International debut, Senuran Muthusamy claimed the wicket of Mitchell Hay and when Maphaka had Jimmy Neesham caught in the deep for a duck, the Proteas had control of the innings.
However Robinson, who is looking to establish himself in New Zealand’s T20 side, stayed calm and in Jacobs found a teammate willing to show the requisite patience as they gradually grew accustomed to a surface that was slow, but where scoring was possible once batters were acclimatised.
The Proteas also overdid use of the short ball especially in the latter stages of the New Zealand innings, with both of the Kiwi batters comfortably taking twos to the longer boundary at the Harare Sports Club. As South Africa faltered, bowling a total of 13 wides, Robinson and Jacobs grew in confidence. The former registered his second T20 International half-century eventually finishing unbeaten on 75, facing 57 balls and hitting six fours and three sixes.
Jacobs made 44 off 30 balls, with three sixes and just one four.
South Africa conceded 63 runs in the last five overs. Muthusamy was the best of the Proteas bowling conceding 19 runs in four overs and the fact that George Linde only bowled one over is a part of the strategy that will be debated in the post-match debrief. In contrast both of New Zealand’s spinners, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner completed their full complement of overs, conceding a combined 70 runs and picking up three wickets.
Pretorius smashed 22 off only 16 balls, with four boundaries, but was outfoxed by an off-cutter from Matt Henry. After Rubin Hermann, became another top order victim of the short ball, there was the surprising decision to elevate Muthusamy to the No.4 spot. Most likely it was to keep a left/right combination going, but Muthusamy battled to find the boundary in the power play or even locate gaps for twos, scoring just seven off nine balls before being bowled by Sodhi.
Reeza Hendricks played back when he should have been forward to Santner and was bowled for 16 and then Rassie van der Dussen was run out after a mix-up with Brevis.
After his momentum-changing 41 against Zimbabwe, Brevis was in the mood to do the same to the Kiwis, hitting three sixes — including a stunning strike over extra cover against Henry — in his innings of 35. But the Black Caps seamer had the last laugh when Brevis was caught on the long-on boundary at the end of that over.
Linde and Coetzee added 37 off 27 balls to briefly revive the Proteas hopes, but those were eventually snuffed out by Henry and the impressive Jacob Duffy, who finished with 3/20 as South Africa were bowled out for 152 in the penultimate over.
New Zealand face the hosts on Friday, with South Africa then playing Zimbabwe on Sunday.
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