Proteas: Bowling heroes, batting zeros

Proteas captain Faf du Plessis praised the bowlers for a fine job with the ball, which just made the disappointment over the poor batting display even greater as South Africa slumped to a 104-run defeat at the hands of England in their World Cup opener at The Oval.

Everything went according to the plan for the Proteas after they won the toss and sent the hosts in to bat. They opened the bowling with leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who claimed a wicket with his second delivery, and the seamers concentrated on taking pace off the ball (hence the selection of medium-pacer Dwaine Pretorius).

Despite four of the England batsmen getting past 50 and the 106-run partnerships for the second and fourth wickets, the home team were restricted to 311 for eight.

But the question marks over the South African batting will only grow bigger after the Proteas were bowled out for just 207, undoing all the good work done in the first half of the game.

“After the first half I felt that we had done a good job with the ball because England bat longer than most teams. If you can stop them then you’ve done a great job with the ball and to restrict them to so few runs in the last 15 overs [111 runs for five wickets] was a great achievement. I don’t feel like we made a lot of mistakes with the ball.

“Opening the bowling with Imran was a plan we thought about probably a year ago, I just had a feeling that against England he could get someone out early and he knew about the plan, he’s been practising with the new ball. But England then got going after the early wicket and batted well, they looked close to getting 350, which is almost their par, so anything between 300 and 320 was a great job on a good pitch,” Du Plessis said.

South Africa’s run-chase was rocked early on by a ferocious new-ball burst by Jofra Archer, who forced Hashim Amla to retire hurt and then dismissed Aiden Markram and Du Plessis cheaply.

The Proteas captain said losing their banker, Amla, early on was particularly frustrating, and by the time he returned after passing a concussion test, there were already six wickets down and it required fantastic batting feats to snatch victory.

“The whole flow of the innings was affected by that unfortunate start with Hashim having to come off. We needed a good start, just to settle the changeroom with a good partnership. But then a few overs later, Aiden and I got out too, and being three down makes the chase really tough. The score starts to look too big and too far away.

“The pitch was good enough to chase 312, but Archer bowled very well with the new ball. He takes time to get used to, he’s a bit nippier than you think, which is why he’s such an x-factor bowler. He broke through our top three and even though Quinton de Kock [68) batted very well and Rassie van der Dussen (50) showed good composure, England were better than us in all three facets of play,” Du Plessis said.

For more sport your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.