Adapting to conditions will be key, says Proteas opener Malan

South Africa will be playing in the evening again in Lahore on Saturday as they look to stay alive in their T20 series against Pakistan, and opening batsman Janneman Malan says they will be better prepared having experienced the interesting weather conditions in the ancient city.

Given it is winter in Pakistan and dew is prevalent in the evenings, the Proteas did the right thing after winning the toss and choosing to bat second in the first match of the series, which they narrowly lost.

There was even more moisture than expected but it strangely had less impact than the visitors thought it would. They were hoping it would make a dry, slow surface more slick, allowing the ball to come on to the bat better and negating some of the turn, but that didn’t happen according to Malan.

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“It was interesting weather, especially when the fog came in,” he said.

“Credit to Pakistan for taking two important catches in the closing stages in those conditions. There was a wet outfield, the ball was wet, but it still didn’t skid on as much as we expected, so it was quite a challenge against the spinners at the start. So we just tried to capitalise on the seamers while they tried to figure out what to do.

“But now that we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work, we’ll have better plans for the second game.

“Some deliveries were more difficult to hit and it wasn’t so much about execution as having the right plans, so there’s room for improvement. We probably need to commit harder and have clearer, better plans, but as a batting unit, we’re not far off where we want to be.”

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