Proteas bowlers vow to bounce back
Proteas batsman Hashim Amla is confident the bowlers will bounce back from their wayward performance in the two-wicket loss to England in their opening ICC World Twenty20 match in Mumbai on Friday.
Amla admitted that the poor execution of basics, which resulted in 20 wides, was a big factor in the Proteas’ loss, who will have less than 24 hours to regroup ahead of the their second match against Afghanistan on Sunday.
“ Faf ( Du Plessis) has spoken about trying to be as simple as we can with our plans,” he said at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
“The difference in the game last night was us conceding too many extras and we will have to leave it at that. We have a quality bowling attack, I believe they will be hurt, along with the team, for not executing as well as they would have liked. I’m sure in the games to follow we can bounce back.”
Amla says the short turnaround of matches will work in their favour, as they prepare to face an unknown Afghanistan side who are riding the crest of their history-making qualification into main stage of the tournament. The two teams have only met each other once, a low-scoring affair the Proteas won by 59 runs at the ICC World T20 in the Caribbean in 2010.
“A short turnaround time is a good thing, whether you are winning or losing,” Amla explained.
“We want to get on with the show, we have been here for over a week with training and preparation so we were excited to get on to the park last night. The quick change is suited for everyone.
“We can’t take any team for granted,” he added.
“We saw how the Afghanistan team played against Sri Lanka, the shorter the format the more the minnow teams are in the running. We don’t take it for granted at all, they have some good players, we are going to have to play our best cricket to beat them.”
The match is scheduled to start at 15h00 local time (11h30 SA Time).
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