South Africa’s fearsome foursome takes centre stage in the build-up to the clash against Bangladesh on Thursday. Can they deliver tomorrow at the Sydney Cricket Ground? #T20WorldCup ✍️ @imongamagcwabe
The Proteas squad has four fearsome fast bowlers who easily clock speeds in excess of 140 km/h. The fact that the World Cup is down under has come as a bit of a relief and a confidence boost because Australian wickets are spicy and conducive to fast bowling. Like in the recently concluded tour of the UK, the ‘Fab Four’ strikes fear into batters’ minds when South Africa is the opposition.
Read: The making of the Fab Four
Unlike in last year’s World Cup, where spinners had a feast and took centre stage, the fast bowlers have been very successful thus far in Australia. With that in mind, the Proteas have an incredible advantage looking ahead to the remaining fixtures.
“[Having four pacemen] really does make your job a lot easier. I think it’s difficult when you have pretty much two seamers that are going to have to do everything. Whereas we have three or four and everyone is better at something than someone else,” Lungi Ngidi told the media on the eve of the clash against Bangladesh.
“So, you can always turn to someone else if things aren’t going well. It does give you that sense of calm but it also gives us the confidence we need going into a tournament like this,” he added.
The Proteas batters found themselves in all sorts of problems in the T20I series against India a few weeks ago. The challenge came from left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh who got the ball to move both ways at will and caused havoc for South Africa’s top-order batters.
Taking on Bangladesh on Thursday means South Africa is likely to face another skilful lefty in Mustafizur Rahman.
There’s also Singh who will most likely be steaming in at the Proteas batters once again come Sunday when South Africa faces India in Perth.
The presence of Wayne Parnell and Marco Jansen in the squad should somewhat help the batters improve and get them ready for what’s to come in the next two fixtures.
“We’re fortunate to have a tall left-arm fast bowler as well. So it helps us prepare going forward knowing what we’re going to be facing,” Ngidi explained.
“We know Bangladesh also have a left-arm seamer in Mustafizur and I think with the skills Marco (Jansen) has it helps us prepare well in terms of what’s going to come as well.
“Just having him in our attack as well brings a different variation. The guy is also like 7-foot tall, so that kind of helps. It is a massive bonus for us.”
The challenge for coach Mark Boucher, skipper Temba Bavuma and the selectors will be to play either Jansen or Parnell. The pecking order favours Parnell who’s been playing regularly leading up to the World Cup.
It will be difficult to overlook the advantage of having a 7-foot tall lefty in the attack in bouncy Australian decks against Asian batters.
Nonetheless, the odds are stacked in the favour of the South Africans seeing that they have the right attack to exploit the Australian conditions. The question is, can they make it count on Thursday?
