Centurion - South African captain Temba Bavuma said he was still searching for answers after his side was hammered by Bangladesh, in the three match One-Day series, putting their hopes of automatic qualification next year’s World Cup in grave jeopardy.
Bangladesh claimed their first series win on South Africa soil on Wednesday beating the Proteas by nine wickets at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
While Taskin Ahmed, who finished as player of the series for taking eight wickets, Shakib Al-Hasan, Yasir Ali and Afif Hossain all starred for the Tigers throughout the series, the Proteas were inconsistent, moving between some sublime performances at the Wanderers and downright awful, especially with the bat in the deciding match.
Bavuma admitted he was still perplexed as to why his side, which beat India 3-0 in January, were so badly outplayed by the Bangladeshis.
“The opponents we came across; I know it's Bangladesh and they are tagged as not being one of the bigger teams, but their skill and their execution was at a high level.”
“They put us under pressure with the ball and (yesterday) with the bat and from a basics point of view they showed us how to execute game plans. The way they displayed their skills out there was of a high level.”
Mark Boucher was also left scratching his head, highlighting a lack of belief and failure to play more aggressively against Bangladesh’s spinners as one of the primary reasons for the series defeat.
“We want them to be proactive and they didn’t do that today,” said the Proteas head coach.
“We’ve been working on shots, shot selection and guys know they have the armoury, it’s one thing to understand that they’ve got it but it’s another to go out and execute. There seems to be a little bit of a block and a bit of fear of getting out rather than understanding the game is about runs.”
The Proteas have had some low scores in ODI’s played at SuperSport Park 🙆♂ #SAvBAN pic.twitter.com/GBhd7PDS03
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) March 23, 2022
Bavuma bemoaned the number of soft dismissals among the top order but also wondered why self-belief might have been lacking amongst his players.
“From a confidence point of view, again I have to reference the India series, coming out of that series there was a lot of confidence and belief amongst the guys individually and as a team,” said South Africa’s limited overs captain.
“Maybe it could have been a case of us not paying respect to the processes which allowed those positive results to come about and just expecting things to go our way. That’s at the top of my head. It’s still a question to ask myself and a question that will remain relevant in the series ahead.”
“If guys had doubts then that is something they have to answer individually, but I had full confidence in everyone and I was backing everyone.”
𝐇![CDATA[]]>𝐢![CDATA[]]>𝐬![CDATA[]]>𝐭![CDATA[]]>𝐨![CDATA[]]>𝐫![CDATA[]]>𝐲 𝐡![CDATA[]]>𝐚![CDATA[]]>𝐬 𝐛![CDATA[]]>𝐞![CDATA[]]>𝐞![CDATA[]]>𝐧 𝐦![CDATA[]]>𝐚![CDATA[]]>𝐝![CDATA[]]>𝐞! Bangladesh record their first-ever series win in South Africa.
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) March 23, 2022
They take down the Proteas 2-1 in the three-match ODI series following a nine-wicket win 👏#SAvBAN pic.twitter.com/znwd6ZUN5E
South Africa and Bangladesh will face each other in a two-match Test series starting in Durban next week.
South Africa will be without a host of top stars including Kagiso Rabada for that series owing to commitments in the Indian Premier League.