Hashim Amla believes England have the edge over South Africa heading into the vital third One-Day International between the two teams because the tourists have a much better balanced starting eleven.
It’s a ‘must win’ game for the home side, who find themselves 0-2 down in the five match series following defeats in Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. South Africa have failed to cope with England’s greater variety with ball and the length of their batting line-up.
“Their bowling has been good and they bat really deep and that allows the English team to attack throughout the game,” Amla said on Monday.
“Because they bat to no.10 they can absorb pressure if they lose a few wickets, they have that cushion and can keep going. They are a well balanced team and in that regard they have the edge on us.”
South Africa struggled in both matches to get the balance of the starting team correct. They’ve picked seven frontline batsmen and the fifth bowler’s ration of overs has been shared between JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien, who have both been ineffective. The pair conceded 93 runs between them in Bloemfontein and though there was an improvement in their performance in Port Elizabeth, where they conceded 62 runs – they never placed England under any great pressure.
“JP and Fudgie have tried their best, but England are a team that bats very deep. AB (de Villiers) has tried to juggle the bowlers as best as he can. There is a strong argument for having five frontline bowlers in this day and age with the flat pitches we’ve come across in one-day cricket.”
Among the options the selectors may consider for tomorrow’s match include the Titans all-rounders David Wiese and Chris Morris – but Amla conceded that regardless of who is picked the Proteas need an improvement in all areas.
“In our last game we were pretty close, we played some good cricket at times. We improved from the first game. Hopefully we can put it all together at once. And we’ve got to do it for three games in a row.”
South Africa hasn’t lost a Test and ODI series against the same side in the same season, since going down 1-2 and 1-5 to Australia in 2002.
Amla acknowledged that losing tomorrow, and thus losing the One-Day series on top of the Test series would be a massive blow. “It would be a blow for us to not win this series, but we are not thinking about that, we are thinking about tomorrow’s game, if we win, we get some momentum for the next one, win that and hopefully we can win Cape Town. Everything starts tomorrow.”