Bavuma wants more ‘clinical’ performance from Proteas bowlers

Despite making an explosive start to the tournament, captain Temba Bavuma admits the Proteas bowling attack will need to come to the party as they target their maiden Cricket World Cup title.

South Africa raced to a World Cup record total of 428 runs after being sent in to bat by Sri Lanka in their World Cup opener in Delhi on Saturday.

Three players scored centuries — Quinton de Kock (100), Rassie van der Dussen (108) and Aiden Markram (106) — as they laid the foundation for a 102-run victory.

READ MORE: South Africa record can be beaten at this World Cup, says Markram

“We wanted to win and did that. As a batter, there was nothing to find fault in,” Bavuma told the cricinfo website.

“We asked for a clinical performance with the ball and didn’t get that but the individual performances were good.

“It was probably a blessing in disguise that we lost the toss. The ball came on to the bat better when the lights came on.”

Expensive bowling

While they bowled out their opponents for 326 runs, the Proteas attack struggled to contain Sri Lanka’s middle order on a wicket that was more conducive to scoring runs than taking wickets.

Fast bowler Gerald Coetzee led the charge, returning 3/68 on his World Cup debut, while Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj took two wickets each.

All five men who were given the ball, however, went for more than six runs an over.

“The point was to adjust with the conditions today. We had a certain perception, and I thought it’d be a bit more variable, but it wasn’t,” Bavuma said.

“We probably didn’t adjust early enough to their main batter (Kusal) Mendis. Kesh (Maharaj) took the pace off and was very good but maybe we need to add spin options, and these are the learnings we have to take.”