Stunned Proteas may have had a few things wrong, says coach Walter

SA’s management were scratching their heads about the extreme contrast in performances dished up by the Proteas in the first three matches of the World Cup, with head coach Rob Walter offering the nature of World Cups as one possible explanation.    

“I said before the World Cup started I don’t think there’s any weak teams in this tournament. If you’re not switched on and don’t win the key moments in the game, you find yourself on the wrong side of the result. We learnt that today,” he said.

The Netherlands played intelligently, took advantage of many opportunities offered to them and executed their plans superbly with the ball to defeat the Proteas by 38 runs in Dharamsala, India.

Ill-discipline with the ball, which saw them concede 32 extras, the second-highest contributor to the Netherlands’ final total of 245/8, and then a shaky start with the bat in which they suffered a top order collapse, losing four wickets for eights runs in 21 balls, has knocked the shine off the Proteas’ start in the tournament.

Having beaten Australia and Sri Lanka in the first week, Tuesday’s loss to a team that had to go through qualifying was disconcerting. 

“Strategically we might have just got a few things wrong,” Walter said. “Maybe we got our ratios a bit wrong in the slower balls versus hard length and on pace deliveries.

“It’s a lot easier in hindsight to say that. From an extras point of view, that’s definitely more extras than we would want to bowl.”

It allowed the Dutch to recover from 140/7 in the 34th over and add another 104 runs in the last nine overs in the rain-reduced encounter. Skipper Scott Edwards top-scored with an unbeaten 78 while Roelof van der Merwe with 29 and Aryan Dutt (23 not out off nine balls) took advantage of SA’s awful “death” bowling.

“At 140/7 you’re in control of the game. So to not be able to close it out at the death is disappointing and the momentum shifted in the game then,” Walter said.

“But we back ourselves still to be able to chase 240. But then we got off to a poor start and they put us on the back foot.” 

Edwards acknowledged the Netherlands’ pre-match analysis on each of the SA players paid dividends in the field. The use of spinners to open the bowling was directly aimed at taking pace off the ball, with tight stump-to-stump lines not providing the batters room to free their arms. 

Max O’Dowd was seen with a piece of paper that Edwards admitted contained intelligence on the SA batters.

“We do our analysis before games and, yes, I suppose the secret’s out, but we have a few points there just to remind us when we’re on the field about the different guys coming in,” he said.

The Dutch, who lost a series to SA earlier in the year — which saw the Proteas earn direct qualification for the World Cup while the Dutch headed to Zimbabwe for the qualifying tournament — believe they are capable of pushing for a play-off spot at this year’s tournament. 

“After qualifying we were quick to set our minds to what we wanted to do at this tournament. We weren’t coming here just to have fun and enjoy it,” Edwards said. 

“We’re here to win games and give ourselves the best chance to make that next stage. SA are a strong side and they’ll be close to that semifinal spot. So yes, if we want to be among it, we’ve got to beat sides like this.”

For the Proteas, who face England next, the path to the final four got a lot harder after Tuesday’s defeat.

“Look, obviously we’ll sit and do a proper dissection of the game,” said Walter.

“Win or lose, what are the lessons we take and how do we use those to be better next time round? In this instance, there’s a lot to learn, good and bad.”