Proteas prepare for T20 tri-series final despite not firing on all cylinders

The Proteas are through to the T20 tri-series final against New Zealand on Saturday, but they haven’t played close to their best cricket thus far.

South Africa have won two of their four matches in Zimbabwe – five- and seven-wicket victories against the hosts, and two thumping defeats, falling by 21 runs and seven wickets to the Black Caps.

It’s been an extremely inconsistent start to Shukri Conrad’s tenure as national white-ball coach, who is overseeing the side in the shortest format for the first time.

South Africa’s current T20 squad is filled with youngsters getting to grips with the rigours of international cricket alongside fringe players in the regular T20 squad.

Only opening batter Reeza Hendricks and fast bowler Gerald Coetzee were part of the squad that took part in the T20 World Cup last year, with Conrad opting to rest his all-format players for the tour.

New Zealand, meanwhile, have come out guns blazing with a side that’s very close to their best, and thoroughly displayed their superiority with a four and zero record across their four matches.

South Africa’s task in the final in Harare will be tough.

Bowling front

All three sides have struggled with the bat in the powerplay, with the decks at Harare Sports Club proving largely turgid for batting.

For this reason, every side that has won the toss has opted to bowl first.

“I don’t think it decides the game but it seems to be a big part… the toss is definitely important,” Hendricks said after South Africa’s seven-wicket defeat to New Zealand on Tuesday.

Despite this, South Africa still failed to chase down the Black Caps’ score of 173 in their first meeting, after putting them into bat, scraping together only 152 runs before being bowled out.

A fairly strong bowling attack, consisting of Lungi Ngidi, Kwena Maphaka, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, George Linde and Senuran Muthusamy, were all dealt with on a helpful wicket in Harare.

“The margins are just smaller when you come up against a team like New Zealand,” all-rounder Bosch said.

Conrad has opted to rotate his side, with left-arm quick Nandre Burger, leg-spinner Nqabayomzi Peter and all-rounder Andile Simelane introduced sporadically across the series.

“Shuks is trying to find the best combinations,” Bosch explained. “The goal at the end of the day is for the T20 World Cup coming up next year. He’s trying to fine-tune all the combinations.

“This is his first white-ball tour as head coach, he’s also trying to find his feet in that sense.

“He’s meticulously planning how he wants to go about his teams and how he plans to set up his team moving forward – looking ahead to the T20 World Cup.

“He’s trying to find the best combinations for bowlers and batters. He’s doing a good job so far, everyone is buying into his plans, so we’re in a good space.”

Batting woes

On the batting front, Rubin Hermann – who made his international debut at the start of the series – has been the most impressive. The powerful southpaw has scores of 45, 1, 63 and 10 in his first four international innings.

But while he’s mainly come to the crease in the middle order, it’s up top where the runs have been dry. South Africa’s highest score by an opener on the tour came yesterday against New Zealand when Hendricks scored 41 off 37 deliveries as the Proteas reached 134 for eight in their 20 overs. That target was chased with 4.5 overs to spare.

The explosive Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who made his T20I debut after making his Test debut in the same country last month, has also failed to come to grips with the conditions.

The 19-year-old had scores of 0, 27 and four at the top of the order before he was shifted down to number five in the hope he would find batting easier in the middle period. He only managed one off six balls after scooping a Mitchell Santner drag-down straight to the fielder at short fine leg.

Youngster Dewald Brevis had a solid opening few knocks with scores of 41, 35 and an undefeated 13, but was attacked with a barrage of short balls against New Zealand and seemed unable to get out of first gear as he scored a run-a-ball 13.

Whoever Conrad selects to open the batting for Proteas will have a tough task on their hands, but they will need to succeed for the side to have a chance of beating the rollicking Black Caps.

“We’ll have to rock up fresh and put our best foot forward,” Hendricks said.

The bowlers will also have their work cut out against the Black Caps who have chased easily against South Africa and Zimbabwe so far and on the one occasion they were put into bat, scored 173 runs – the highest score across the five matches played so far. DM