Proteas captain Temba Bavuma says they have to up their game in the batting department if they want to make their stem dik at the T20 World Cup in UAE.
South Africa gave its fans a bitter pil to sluk again on Saturday when a poor batting display saw them post just 118/9 in their tournament opener against Australia.
Captain Bavuma led the downfall from the front, being the first wicket to fall when he was clean bowled by Glenn Maxwell (1/24) for 12.
From there, Aussie quicks Mitchell Starc (2/32), Josh Hazlewood (2/19) and Pat Cummins (1/17) got rid of Quinton de Kock (7), Rassie van der Dussen (2) and Heinrich Klaasen (13).
No.6 David Miller (16) also didn’t bother the scorers, with the only top-order batsman to put up a fight being Aiden Markram, who scored 40 runs.
Bavuma admits: “The 118 was definitely not a par score… we didn’t really bat well. Aiden [Markram] was really the only one who had any score of substance.”
Still their bowlers made a fight of it, with Australia only getting the winning runs with two balls to spare and five wickets in the bank, finishing on 121/5 with Steve Smith top-scoring with 35.
Anrich Nortje (2/21) returned the best bowling figures for SA, as the Proteas showed some good fighting spirit in the field.
Bavuma adds of the effort: “I thought the bowlers bowled quite well. There’s no one I can fault in the bowling department.
“So if you are selecting six batters with an allrounder at 7, and you are scoring 118, then I don’t think you can exactly blame the plan.
“I think from a batting point of view, we know that there’s a lot that we could have done and we will be looking to correct our wrongs in the next game.”