Plans in place to deal with spin prodigy Ghazanfar, says Mulder

Admitting they were stunned by teenager Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar in the first match, all-rounder Wiaan Mulder said the Proteas were more confident in their ability to handle him heading into the second fixture against Afghanistan in Sharjah on Friday (2pm SA time).

In the opening game of their three-match series on Wednesday, Afghanistan earned a historic six-wicket victory, with only Mulder putting up much resistance for South Africa, hitting an ODI career best of 52.

The Afghanistan attack was spearheaded by experienced seam bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi and 18-year-old spinner Ghazanfar, as the Proteas were bundled out for 106 runs.

Too much spin

Playing only the third ODI of his career, Ghazanfar took 3/20, ripping through the Proteas’ middle order.

“There wasn’t a lot of footage on him, which made it really difficult in terms of our prep before the match,” Mulder said.

“We knew he was an off-spinner, and we knew he had a variation of some sort, but to understand it was going to spin as much as it did away from the right-hand batter was the tricky part for most of us, and that created a lot of insecurity about how to play the guy.”

Better plans in place

Having discussed the young bowler after their defeat, however, Mulder said they would have better plans of how to deal with Ghazanfar in the second game in Sharjah.

“There was a lot of communication during the game, trying to understand how we’re going to play him and what the method is that’s actually going to give us a chance to score and see out his best balls.

“And the conversation we had after the game was all about how we can pick each other’s brains, go to practice and get better.”