WI vs SA - Rassie van der Dussen looks back at South Africa's poor performance in T20I series in West Indies

South Africa had been “taught a lesson in play in Caribbean situations” within the opinion of stand-in T20I captain Rassie van der Dussen, who oversaw a 3-0 sweep by the hands of West Indies.

Van der Dussen, who is just not a part of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad regardless of being the second-highest run-scorer in T20 cricket in 2024, stood in for Aiden Markram, as captain and No. 4 batter, with disappointing outcomes. South Africa slumped to a second successive T20I collection defeat to West Indies. They haven’t gained a T20I collection out of the 4 they’ve performed below white-ball coach Rob Walter and stored “making the identical errors,” van der Dussen stated.

He recognized South Africa’s batting, particularly upfront, as too circumspect. “From a batting entrance, we are able to possibly be only a bit braver,” he stated. “We noticed the way in which that the West Indies play, particularly within the powerplay. They actually take it on. When the ball’s new, it is simpler to attain. It will get powerful in the direction of the again finish when the ball will get mushy.”

Batting first, West Indies placed on scores of 64 for 1 and 51 for 1 within the powerplays within the first two video games, and chasing 164 within the ultimate sport on Sunday, they raced to 83 with out loss in that interval. South Africa had been 46 for 3 and 85 for two chasing (the latter their highest powerplay rating) and 45 for two batting first. The plain distinction is the variety of wickets misplaced amongst a high order that might want to do responsibility on the T20 World Cup. Each Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock loved some particular person success – Hendricks together with his 51-ball 87 within the first sport and de Kock with a 17-ball 41 within the second – however their partnership solely succeeded as soon as and Ryan Rickelton, the No. 3, was unable to get previous 20.

Van der Dussen put a few of that right down to exhaustion and a few to taking longer than they need to to evaluate situations, however remained harsh in his evaluation. “We simply could not adapt early sufficient. We had a protracted week by way of layovers in Miami and so forth. We noticed that within the first match, however you possibly can’t maintain making the identical errors.”

The center order did not fare a lot better – van der Dussen was the one batter of these carded No. 4 to 7 to get two scores in double-figures – however they are going to be completely changed by Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and Tristan Stubbs, which ought to increase South Africa’s power-hitting.

The issue? None of them had been within the IPL 2024’s top-ten run-scorers’ record and all had been inconsistent to various levels on the event.

Klaasen began the IPL nicely however fell away within the center interval, although he did rating a half-century within the second qualifier; Markram and Miller solely scored one fifty every in 11 innings and 9 innings respectively; Stubbs, one of the best of the lot, scored three fifties and confirmed off good ending expertise in his time in India.

Van der Dussen was hopeful that their return to the nationwide aspect will increase the scoring price. “The blokes are very skilled. A lot of them have performed CPL a couple of occasions,” he stated. “We do not know what situations we’ll get within the USA however the center order is made up of very skilled, world-class gamers.”

Anrich Nortje’s type stays a priority

Issues seem extra worrying on the bowling entrance, the place van der Dussen stated West Indies “simply out-skilled us” as South Africa “tried a couple of various things however nothing appeared to work”. The largest concern is Anrich Nortje, who went wicketless within the two matches he performed and continued to concede runs closely – as he did on the IPL – however there can also be some furrowed brows over the health of Ottneil Baartman. He bowled his full quota of 4 overs within the first match however picked up a decrease limb pressure and didn’t play the subsequent two video games. Baartman provides extra variations than anybody else within the South African squad, particularly as Lungi Ngidi is simply a part of the reserves, and his availability for the event may very well be essential to their probabilities.

South Africa had been with out Kagiso Rabada, who was recovering from a mushy tissue an infection, for this collection and Tabraiz Shamsi, who travelled with the squad however didn’t play a sport due to a decrease limb damage. Bjorn Fortuin operated because the first-choice spinner and was pretty economical however solely picked up one wicket.

It may even be argued that he was outshone by newcomer Nqaba Peter, the legspinner, who is just not a part of the T20 World Cup squad however is a prospect for the longer term. Requested to determine some positives, Peter was instantly on van der Dussen’s thoughts. “Teenager Nqaba Peter made his debut and appears like he is been taking part in for a couple of years already,” he stated. “And Bjorn Fortuin bowled nicely at levels. So there’s some glimpses right here and there, which we have to search for. However I feel total we had been simply in need of the mark by fairly a great distance this week.”

South Africa have yet one more alternative to positive tune. They may play a warm-up match in opposition to a yet-to-be-confirmed opposition in Florida on Wednesday earlier than their event begins in opposition to Sri Lanka in per week’s time.

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