Temba Bavuma calls for South Africa to be relentless after losing ODI series opener to Australia

Bloemfontein:  South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma, who carried his bat throughout the innings to finish with 114 not out off 142 balls in the ODI series opener against Australia, has urged for his team to be relentless in their showing after ending up on the losing side.

After being bowled out for 222, South Africa managed to reduce Australia to 113/7, but an unbeaten 112-run partnership between concussion substitute Marnus Labuschagne (80 not out) and Ashton Agar (48 not out) saw Australia get the three-wicket victory with ease.

“If you get a team in that position, you expect yourself to be able to clean out the game. We speak about being relentless. When you get given a sniff against a team like Australia, you’ve got to take it. If the situations were reversed, they would have prided themselves on cleaning up the game,” Bavuma was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo after the match ended.

He also felt that some South African players are still finding their groove after no international matches in five months. “We will get better. These are world-class players we have in the team. We don’t expect them to keep making the same mistakes.”

Bavuma also admitted that the bowling line-up couldn’t keep things tight in the first ten overs.

“The first ten overs weren’t great. We managed to get wickets, but at what cost? That’s just a mis-execution thing.”

“If you look at our first 10 overs versus theirs first ten overs, it was chalk and cheese. It was just our inability to create chances in that innings. I would have encouraged the bowlers to use their bouncers a bit more.”

The second ODI between South Africa and Australia will happen on Saturday in Bloemfontein. Bavuma signed off by saying South Africa will be aiming for improvements in the next game, especially with the Men’s ODI World Cup on the horizon.

“We’ve lost one ODI game. There’s no use referencing the T20s as that’s different personnel. We weren’t good enough and we need to find ways to improve our game holistically. We will challenge ourselves to get better.”

–IANS