Proteas batte Jason Smith walks off the field after being dismissed for 10 in their T20 match against New Zealand at Eden Park.
Image: AFP
The Proteas fell behind in the third T20 of the five-match series against New Zealand at Eden Park on Friday, losing by eight wickets after stumbling to 136/9 batting first.
The Black Caps cruised to the total with 22 balls to spare after weathering some early pressure. It was only thanks to some lusty blows by Nqobani Mokoena down the order – his 23 runs included three sixes – that SA were able to reach more than 120.
The innings began in disastrous fashion. Wiaan Mulder fell for a duck, Tony de Zorzi made 15, and Connor Esterhuizen 15, leaving the Proteas at 41/3 after the powerplay. Jason Smith (10), Rubin Hermann (4), Dian Forrester (17) and skipper Keshav Maharaj were unable to arrest the slide.
All-rounders George Linde (23) and Gerald Coetzee (16) offered some resistance, but the mini-recovery to 139 owed much to Mokoena’s late blitz.
“It was really disappointing, to say the least,” Maharaj said in his post-match interview. “We lost too many wickets in that powerplay and then just never got going.
"We weren't scoring, and then they stemmed the flow of runs and picked up wickets – we were 46/5 – and it's very hard to come back from that. A little lower-order hitting gave us half a chance.”
Defending a modest total, South Africa needed early breakthroughs. Coetzee (0/23) and Lutho Sipamla (1/25) produced a fiery opening spell, restricting the Black Caps to 48/0 in the powerplay.
However, Tom Latham and Devon Conway stabilised the chase before accelerating with a 96-run partnership. Maharaj eventually dismissed Conway for 36, but Latham remained unbeaten on 63 off 55 as New Zealand sealed victory in the 17th over. Sipamla claimed the only other wicket, removing Tim Robinson for 17.
“We weren’t adaptable enough. We saw the conditions were really up-and-down from a bounce perspective but never adjusted and tried to play the way we normally play, so maybe it's about adapting quicker rather than later,” Maharaj said.
Asked about positives, he singled out Mokoena’s hitting and the "spicy" opening spell by the seamers that set the tone with the new ball.
"We are a young side, not to make excuses, but hopefully the lessons from here sink in a little bit quicker. The beauty of this series is we've still got a chance to come back into it. It's back to the drawing board, and we'll hopefully assess the conditions better in the next game and put in a more clinical performance with both bat and ball."
It was a bad day all-round for the Proteas teams, with the women losing by six wickets against their counterparts from New Zealand in the first match of the double-header, which mirrored the men's struggles with the bat.