No reason to panic, says Bavuma after Proteas’ thumping in third T20

There is no reason to panic, assured Proteas captain Temba Bavuma after his side’s big defeat to India in the third T20 International in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

After chasing down big scores in the first two matches of the series to go 2-0 up the Proteas’ fielding and batting let them down in the third match, the side crashing to a 48-run defeat, after being bowled out for 131 in the final over of their chase.

There are still two matches to be played, with the series 2-1 in favour of Bavuma’s team.

“We were not at our best in the first 10 overs,” said Bavuma, referring to the India openers getting their team off to a good start.

At 120 for one in 12 overs it looked like India were going to post a big score. The Proteas though did well to restrict their hosts to 179 for five.

‘Not up to par’

“I thought we did very well in the second half of their innings to restrict them to 180,” said Bavuma.

“But, we could have done better than that. In the field we missed a couple of chances, and our batting was not up to par. Losing wickets up front makes it hard to gain any sort of momentum. It was not our best effort today. We’ll go back to the drawing board, and be better.”

The Proteas have missed having Quinton de Kock (hand injury) at the top of the order in the last two games, while Aiden Markram (Covid) has also not played on tour. Both though could be back for the final two matches, in Rajkot on Friday and Bengaluru on Sunday.

“It’s a two-day turn-around so we’ll look at the areas where we can improve. There are no panic stations.

“They were the better side on the day. We played good cricket first in the first two games, and they would have accepted that, we must accept when the other team plays well.”