“I’d be foolish to change our approach after one loss.” – Temba Bavuma
Telford Vice | Cape Town
HOW can you possibly cope without Quinton de Kock? Why are you choosing to field first? Shouldn’t you be thrashing your weakened opponents? Are your batters taking too long to come to terms with the conditions? What about the pitches? What about the dew?
From the tone of the questions slung at Temba Bavuma after India won the third T20I in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday — by 48 runs, their biggest victory over South Africa in the format — you would have thought the visitors were 3-0 down in the series. They are, of course, 2-1 up and they have two more chances to clinch the rubber.
“When the team loses there’s a lot of areas we can point out,” Bavuma told a press conference in Vizag after Tuesday’s game. He spoke with weary wisdom, maybe because he has been shot in this movie 10 times now. That’s how many white-ball games South Africa have lost under his leadership. They have won 18.
“We’re not expecting things to happen,” Bavuma said. “We know we have to play well, and that’s what we did in the first two games. Today [India] were a much better side. I don’t think you guys were thinking we were going to come here and win the series 5-0 just because all the big name players aren’t here. That’s a good Indian team. I’d be foolish to change our approach after one loss.”
South Africa managed just fine without De Kock — who has missed the last two matches because of a hand injury — in winning the second game in Cuttack on Sunday. The visitors have twice won batting second, once by scoring a record total. And while India do not have the rested Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, and the injured Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav, they do have Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal. As for the conditions, there can be no complaints.
“There are no panic stations,” Bavuma said in an audio file released by CSA. “They were the better side on the day. We played good cricket in the first two games, and I think they accepted that. We’ve also got to accept it when the other team plays well.”
Doubtless the doomsayers will raise the alarm about South Africa having never played a T20I in Rajkot, where the series moves on Friday, and only one in Bangalore, where it ends on Sunday. Less highlighted will be the fact that they had played just one in Delhi and Cuttack before this rubber — and have still never lost in this format at those grounds.
India’s bowlers and fielders got the job done on Tuesday after South Africa put the brakes on the home side’s batting momentum in the second half of their innings. There was no domination, no dramatic turnaround, no meltdown, no dawning of destiny. There was a match — a good, tense match — in which India played better than South Africa and won. Sometimes, even in a game as complex as cricket, it’s as simple as that.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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