“We lacked Protea fire” - De Villiers
The hosts posted 304/7 courtesy of a typically classy Hashim Amla knock of 124 and a gritty 89 from Rilee Rossouw at SuperSport Park, in Centurion. New Zealand fell to 158 for five in their run chase in the 30th over, and it appeared that South Africa had the contest wrapped up. But the Kiwis were allowed to put partnerships together, and had they not been bowled out for 284 the 11 balls remaining could have been enough to see the visitors over the line.
“The kind of intensity and Protea fire we always talk about was lacking tonight and that was disappointing,” said De Villiers after the match.
“And we need to go work on that before Sunday. I feel if we had that kind of energy tonight it would’ve been a walk-over, and it wasn’t. They were in the game, and if you let quality sides like them in the game they tend to win more often than not. Luckily we got away with that tonight.”
The Proteas also dropped a number of catches on the night, most notably two in the first over of the innings off the bowling of Dale Steyn.
“That pretty much summed up how lackadaisical we were in the field.
“I didn’t think we had a really good night with the ball in hand, I found our energy lacking in the field. That probably just comes with a bit of time together with a couple new faces that need to get used to the way I captain and the way we operate as a team. I don’t know exactly what went wrong, but I didn’t feel that energy that we normally have from the guys.”
Though the fielding let De Villiers down, he was pleased with the bowling of Steyn (2/50), Vernon Philander (2/51), Kagiso Rabada (1/49) and Imran Tahir (2/40).
“Vernon, Dale and Imran bowled really well tonight. David started off slowly, took him a while to get going and KG [Rabada] bowled well in spells. The potential and talent is definitely there and it’s our responsibility to get it through.
“It’s a win and we’ll take it, we’re never going to be disappointed by winning a game of cricket.”
Asked to give the different disciplines of the Proteas performance ratings, De Villiers was honest in his assessment.
“Our batting was close to 8.5 out of 10, the bowling itself was 7.5, and fielding was way down there on 4.” - ANA
(File photo: Gallo Images)