After South Africa lost, Temba Bavuma was quite frustrated with his “soft dismissal” and failure to establish a strong foundation for South Africa’s middle order as they fell 50 runs short against New Zealand in the second semi-final of the Champions Trophy in Lahore. Chasing a challenging target of 363, South Africa began strongly and reached 125 for 1 by the 23rd over. Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen had constructed a promising 105-run stand for the second wicket, keeping their side in contention. But both the batters were sent back in a hurry, spoiling their momentum.
South Africa Didn’t Have Strong Foundation
“Ideally, you would’ve wanted the both of us to keep going – at least till the 30th over. We know how destructive our middle order can be when they’re coming in that last 20 overs,” Bavuma said at the post-match presentation. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to set that foundation for them. Little bit of a soft dismissal, at least from my side. I think that just left too much for our middle order.”
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More Consistency Required
Realizing the task of pursuing such a huge aggregate, Bavuma conceded that South Africa required consistent performances from all their batsmen to combine well-compiled partnerships. Though David Miller contributed a sensational knock, scoring a century off only 67 balls, he was denied the requisite support from the other batsmen, leaving South Africa at 312 for 9.
No Proper Partnerships
“Yeah, look, I do think it [target] was above par. I think as well as they bat, we felt that if [the target was] anything around 350 – not over 350 – we’d back ourselves to chase the score with the wicket hopefully getting better,” Bavuma said. “From a batting point of view, we just weren’t able to really get those partnerships. There were one or two partnerships there, but I think you probably needed either myself or Rassie van der Dussen to go on and emulate what their top four batters did.
“But yeah, 360 was always going to be tough. It was always going to require someone to play well. We had David who did that, but we probably needed someone else as well.”
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New Zealand Put South Africa Under Pressure
“They really put us under pressure from the get-go, [with] the way they were able to pierce the off side, and I think even in the middle [overs], how they were able to just keep scoring boundaries,” Bavuma said. “Normally, we pride ourselves in our ability to take wickets – especially in that middle period – but we weren’t able to. Obviously, if you go into the death phase with wickets in hand, it always becomes difficult to contain them, especially on these type of wickets. So yeah, kudos to them.
Rachin Ravindra And Kane Williamson: The Heroes Of NZ
“Credit to their betters, Kane Williamson, Rachin, and even the guys who came in as well – Mitchell, as well as Phillips. They put us under pressure with the bat.”
New Zealand’s batting also revolved around Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson, who both registered centuries. Bavuma acknowledged that either he or van der Dussen had to emulate such efforts and had to hold the innings until the latter stages. He also praised the work done by New Zealand’s batters, with 108 from Ravindra and 102 from Williamson, to which Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips contributed with swashbuckling 49s to push the match out of South Africa’s reach.
