Proteas Urged to Find Consistency After Heavy Defeat by India

Proteas batting coach Ashwell Prince acknowledged the team's ongoing struggles for form.

The South African team, runners-up of the 2024 T20 World Cup, faced a tough defeat by 101 runs against India in Cuttack, resulting in their lowest ever total in a T20 International match.

“We need to find more consistency, and after this batting performance, that is one department we need to improve on quickly – tonight we weren’t up to the task,” Prince noted.

Captain Aiden Markram won the toss and opted to bowl first, a decision Prince elaborated on. “The decision to bowl first was not based on the nature of the pitch. We thought it was a good pitch. We knew there was dew around. There always seems to be more dew around at night. We have the stats in terms of average scores, etc., so I don’t think the decision was based on what we thought the pitch would do.”

“Any score where you get 180-200 in a T20 is a chaseable score. The boundaries here are not particularly big,” he added.

“I thought the pitch was good. Not every pitch you bat on must be a 220 pitch,” Prince asserted. He acknowledged that India had a slow start, only scoring 70 runs in the first 10 overs until Hardik Pandya made a significant impact.

Prince highlighted Pandya as the game-changer. “Hardik came in and played a brilliant knock to give them a competitive score. You need to give him credit. He has come from injury and came back looking sharp. He picked the right moment to attack – he took on the spinners, and at the end, he put the pressure back onto the fast bowlers.”

With Pandya's contributions, India added 105 runs in the final 10 overs, including 30 runs in the last two overs, with Pandya scoring 59 off just 28 balls.

“I don’t think you can decide at the halfway point if you have a winning score – but you can put up a competitive score which turns out to be enough,” Prince commented.

Despite the significant defeat, the Proteas have four more games in the series, and the batting coach emphasized the need for adaptability. “As a cricketer, the word adaptability is a big word in the vocabulary,” he noted. “Being able to adapt to what the pitch is doing on the day is key – unfortunately, we were unable to do that and find any rhythm in our batting.”