Boucher: We need to take emotion out of a really bad loss

Despite so much attention focused on it as well as assurances that there’s work being done, the Proteas attack again underperformed badly in Friday night’s comprehensive 107-run loss in the first T20 against Australia at the Wanderers.

Head coach Mark Boucher, who sounded quite frustrated, had no qualms blaming the defeat on “poor” bowling, even though South Africa were shot out for 89, their lowest total in T20 internationals.

A unit bolstered by the return of Kagiso Rabada and featuring Dale Steyn and Lungi Ngidi conceded an almighty 70 runs in the first six overs, a wayward period notable for how the bowlers showed little to no willingness to keep their deliveries fuller and lines tighter.

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“It’s not something we can change overnight. We’ve tried to work on things like yorkers but our lines and length were really bad,” said Boucher.

“It’s not like they were running down the wicket and taking us on. We were giving them boundary options.

“The powerplay put us on the backfoot straight away and that was from some really poor bowling. I can understand if you bowl one or two cut balls and the wicket is sitting up a bit, but I think we went for 10 boundaries off cut balls, which got the momentum going their way.”

Awkwardly, the talismanic Rabada was the Proteas’ most expensive bowler on the night, flayed for 45 runs in three overs.

However, Boucher has a point in arguing that the 24-year-old quick, who was rested for the England series, shouldn’t shoulder too much blame.

“KG has come back from a long rest so it’s no use making an emotional decision and saying we are going to leave him out for the next game,” he said.

“We need guys like him and Anrich Nortje to come back but we also needed to rest them and that was the right decision because we want them fresh.”

Speaking of emotion, the Proteas mentor also insisted that any anger over what was admittedly “a really bad loss” needs to be limited.

“We need to take the emotion out of the whole scenario,” said Boucher.

“Now is the time that players need to put their hands up and stake a claim for positions and there are still position up for grabs. We don’t quite know what our combinations are going to be and we are waiting for guys to step up.”

The World T20 is indeed still over seven months away, but South Africa can’t exactly afford to dawdle either.

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