Zaahier Adams
The Proteas may have arrived on the Highveld buoyed by their series-levelling victory at St George’s Park, but it is imperative that they learn quickly from their error-strewn performances across the opening two T20Is.
In one of their victories, they were hopeless with the ball; in the other, inept with the bat. To prevail in a series against the current T20 world champions, it goes without saying that the need is to get both right, starting at Centurion tonight.
What A Blast! 🏟️🎊
Thank you St George’s Park Stadium, for bringing the passion on Sunday to help get our Proteas over the line with the win.✨🏏🇿🇦#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/D0xuoTRj5o
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) November 11, 2024
The Proteas have worked long and hard to dispel the notion that they meekly surrender when the bowling is of the sort that is slow and turning. However, their traditional weaknesses have recently come to the fore again, firstly on the tour of the UAE where Afghanistan’s mystery spin had them in a twist, and now again India’s spin twins of Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi.
Their decision-making at St George’s Park left a lot to be desired, particularly from some of the senior core, leaving youngsters Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee to shoulder the responsibility of leading the team home at the back end. All-rounder Marco Jansen, who was equally wasteful after being promoted up the order in Gqeberha, believes the conditions at Centurion tonight should be much more in favour of the home team’s batting unit.
“The first game we spoke about, we didn’t play our best. The second game was to focus on giving us the best chance to win. We did decently with the ball. And then we all felt we could have done better with the bat,” Jansen said.
“In the second game, we were a lot more focused on winning the small battles. We won most of the small battles, even though it was a low-scoring game. There is a different challenge here because there is more bounce. We didn’t play the spin particularly well in PE, a few soft options, me in particular.
“Playing spin here is a lot different. There is a lot more bounce. They will try to hit a fuller length. We’ll try to hit the ball a lot straighter instead of squarer.”
Similarly, Jansen feels that charging in with the new ball here at Centurion will provide different challenges, but ones he is ready to embrace.
“It is always difficult in the Powerplay. These guys don’t second guess themselves. They go full tilt,” he said.
“The ball travels much more than at the coast. We have to try to take wickets at regular intervals that will hopefully restrict them to a low total. It is simple: we know they go hard in the first six and the last six. We can’t control what they do. We can only control what we are trying to execute.”
The prevailing weather conditions on the Highveld the past week forced the Proteas’ training session indoors yesterday. However, the clouds that had hovered during the morning had dissipated enough by the afternoon to at least allow India to fit in an outdoor net and fielding session.
After playing two spinners on the coast during the first two matches, it is likely that one of them, in all likelihood Nqaba Peter, will have to make way for one of the all-rounders, Mihlali Mpongawana, or seamer Lutho Sipamla, who has been added to the squad for the remainder of the series.
SQUADS FOR CENTURION
SOUTH AFRICA: Aiden Markram (capt), Reeza Hendricks, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Donovan Ferreira, Patrick Kruger, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Mihlali Mpongwana, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqaba Peter, Ottneil Baartman, Lutho Sipamla
INDIA: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Abhishek Sharma, Ramandeep Singh, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarty, Yash Dayal, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan
