Proteas captain AB de Villiers bemoaned a poor finish with the bat for the four-wicket defeat to the West Indies in the Tri-Nation series in Guyana on Friday.
South Africa were well set at 130/3 after 30 overs at the Providence Stadium, with De Villiers unbeaten on 31 and No 3 Rilee Rossouw on 47.
But the skipper was unlucky to lose his wicket with the very next ball when he drove the ball back towards paceman Jerome Taylor, who stuck his hand out and held on to grab the big wicket of De Villiers.
The Proteas lost all their momentum after that, and after looking on course for a competitive total of 250 on a slow and dry pitch, they collapsed to 188 all out in 46.5 overs.
Rossouw finished on 61 off 83 balls, which included just two fours, with only JP Duminy posting some resistance in the middle-order with 23 off 34 balls, without any boundaries.
Openers Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla were in fine touch after their exploits in the IPL, with De Kock in particularly going hard at the West Indies attack. The left-hander struck six boundaries in his 34-ball 30, while Amla accumulated 20 off 26.
But it was the world’s best limited-overs spinner, Sunil Narine, who decimated the Proteas line-up with career-best figures of 6/27 in 9.5 overs with a combination of knuckle balls and other mystery deliveries in a remodelled action.
The South African spin trio of Imran Tahir (2/41), Aaron Phangiso (3/40) and Duminy had the West Indies batsmen on the back foot at 76/4, but a 74-run fifth-wicket partnership between Darren Bravo (30) and the big-hitting Kieron Pollard, who smashed six sixes and two fours in a run-a-ball 67 not out, extinguished any hopes of a Proteas victory.
“In the last 10 to 12 overs with the bat in hand, we lost our way a bit. I thought we set it up exceptionally well and the communication was that 220-plus would be a winning score. Unfortunately we couldn’t get there,” De Villiers said.
“I had a nice partnership going with Rilee, then I got out and after that, there were no partnerships unfortunately. Just lost our way, just found it difficult to get in. Like I said, 30-odd runs short – 30 or 40 more runs would’ve been a very competitive total, probably a winning score.
“So, the positive out of that is that our assessment was pretty good, but our execution wasn’t spot-on in the last 10 overs with the bat in hand and that proved to be the difference in the end.
“Pollard looked really good from the word go, he looked in control. He played the spinners well, but other than that, the spinners dominated most of the batters. I thought Imran Tahir and Phangiso had a great partnership going and I was proud of the way they performed.
“One or two went just over the boundary, and that could’ve changed the game a bit. But those are the small margins of this beautiful game we play. It didn’t go our way, but there’s still a long way to go in the series.”
The Proteas face Australia in the next match on Tuesday in Guyana as well (7pm start SA time), and with the pitch unlikely to be any quicker, De Villiers is wary of changing his team’s tactics.
“We will read the conditions against Australia and there is still a long way to go in the tournament, so it’s not the time to go more aggressively and try to get a bonus point. We just want to win a game of cricket.”
@IndyCapeSport - Independent Media