The Proteas struggled to adapt to the slow pitch in Paarl as they squeezed out 146/6 in their 20 overs, writes Khalid Mohidin.
There were no Player Moments to pick from a South African perspective. So, I will try to summarise where things went wrong with the South African batsmen.
England bowled well on the slow, flat Paarl pitch and the Proteas top order seemed to rush their shots, forcing attacking shots instead of holding back and playing more gentle deft touches to find the gaps.
The perfect example of this was the wicket of Reeza Hendricks. Coming in at No 3, after playing a cute reverse sweep for four, he attempted an aggressive slog-sweep and was done by Adil Rashid, by a ball dipping late and crashing into off-stump.
Quinton de Kock looked to capitalise in the power play early on and particularly targeted the backward square region, but his continuous attacking intent was snuffled by Chris Jordan, when his attempt to go straight and over the top failed, with Tom Curran taking a stretched-out catch at mid-on.
Faf was stumped, after searching for contact on a tossed up Rashid delivery.
Klaasen lost his wicket flicking the ball to mid-wicket, a familiar dismissal for the batter.
George Linde put in a tidy cameo for his 20-ball 29 (2 fours, 1 six).
Rassie van der Dussen ended unbeaten on 25 off 29 balls.
Ultimately it seemed like the Proteas struggled to read the pitch and select the correct shot to combat England’s tight bowling.
Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix
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