Photo Credit: ICC
He added: “Bowling has been our strength over the last couple of months and that’s largely due to the tactics we have employed but most importantly them executing as well as they did
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma praised his bowlers’ class after an eight-wicket win over the West Indies got their Super 12s campaign up and running.
The Proteas lost to Australia by five wickets first time out after posting an under-par 118 for nine but at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Bavuma elected to insert the West Indies.
Anrich Nortje won Player of the Match award for a frugal spell of pace bowling which left him with figures of one for 14 off four overs, while Dwaine Pretorius took three for 17 after bowling the 18th and 20th overs as West Indies posted 143 for eight.
Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen then shared an unbeaten partnership of 83 from 57 balls to seal their side’s first victory of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 with ten balls to spare.
“I’m obviously ecstatic, that was the plan to come and get a win to get our campaign started,” said Bavuma.
“After the last game we knew there were areas we had to improve in our game, particularly with the bat we had to be more clinical and it’s a step in the right direction.
“Winning the toss and electing to bowl it was our plan to restrict them as much as you can, our bowlers have been fantastic over the last while and again they showed their skill and their class.
“It was a good day out with the ball and also in the field as fielders.”
Bavuma was delighted with how his bowlers executed the game plan against the West Indies and will be hoping they continue their fine performances into their next fixture against Sri Lanka on Saturday.
He added: “Bowling has been our strength over the last couple of months and that’s largely due to the tactics we have employed but most importantly them executing as well as they did.
“Today was another example of that and the confidence we have in our bowling attack.”
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard revealed he thought his side were 20 to 25 runs short as they slipped to their second consecutive convincing defeat after a six-wicket reverse to England on Sunday.
He said: “I’m obviously disappointed and I thought we left 20 to 25 runs out there when we batted and that could have made a difference in terms of how we finished off because we got off to a pretty decent start in terms of getting 40-odd without losing a wicket in the powerplay.
“That was our opportunity to try and step our foot on the gas a bit, rotate the strike a bit more and try to get to that 160 but it didn’t happen, and we got 143.
“Over the last couple of games, we have lost too many wickets so it’s give and take, we didn’t lose any wickets in the powerplay but today I thought we got a bit stuck in the middle overs.
“Then we tried to up the ante, but it is always going to be difficult with new guys coming into bat.”
Pollard called on his team, especially the batting unit, to “dig deeper” if they are going to win their final three games against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Australia to progress to the semi-finals.
He added: “We have to do what it takes; we have to dig deeper as a team and a batting unit, we have to hold our heads up and try to play a good game of cricket.
“We have to get wins on the board now. We have a pretty low net run rate, and we haven’t won any games, so we have to win the next three games but take it one at a time and try to improve every time.”
