South Africa’s comedy of errors led to defeat against New Zealand
South Africa’s experimental batting lineup (including promoting Senuran Muthusamy (pictured left) to number four) led to a 21-run defeat against New Zealand in their T20 tri-series clash in Harare, despite their bowlers initially reducing New Zealand to 70/5.Picture: Farooq Naeem/AFP
Image: Farooq Naeem/AFP
The famous quote of Jacques Kallis came to mind on Wednesday after South Africa allowed New Zealand to post 173/5 in their innings. The line, of course, was “the bowlers have done their job, now it’s time for the batsmen to do theirs.”
I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gist of what Kallis said straight after South Africa saw Australia post a then-record of 434 in their 50 overs in that famous One-Day International (ODI) at the Wanderers in 2006.
The Proteas would go on to win that historic match, which is widely hailed as the best ODI ever, also known as 438 due to the score SA reached in response.
It was quite a different response from South Africa against the Kiwis in Harare, though, as a mostly experimental lineup fell 21 runs short of their imposing target.
South Africa’s Experimental Batting Backfires in T20 Match Against New Zealand
I don’t even blame the bowlers, even though they had New Zealand 70/5 in the 10th over.
In modern T20s, one expects the bowlers to take a beating, and that’s exactly what happened. It’s simply the nature of the game.
The Proteas, though, went against their nature and were far too experimental with their batting lineup.
After a solid opening stand of 34, Rubin Hermann and Senuran Muthusamy were both elevated up the order to number three and four, respectively.
The pair looked at sea and combined for eight runs between them. Such was the gravity of the backfire that the experienced skipper Rassie van der Dussen was clearly feeling the pressure as he was run out for 6.
Though Dewald Brevis (35) and George Linde (30) delivered decent knocks, the odds were always stacked against them after Van der Dussen’s departure left South Africa 62/5 after 8.4 overs.
It was painful to watch; let’s just hope South Africa ditch the experimentation in their next match of the tri-series and instead the batters simply focus on doing their jobs.
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