ICC World Cup 2019 | South Africa batters have got to step up and they haven’t, says Dale Benkenstein
South Africa's batting coach Dale Benkenstein has admitted that the batsmen have failed to perform at the level expected of them which has resulted in a dismal World Cup campaign so far for them. He stated that the batsmen had the potential to win games but lack consistency and balance.
Having recorded their worst start ever to the ICC World Cup, South Africa have managed to just gather one point from their first four matches, that too courtesy of a washout against the Windies. They lost their first three games against England, Bangladesh and India, and need to turn things around quickly in order to remain in contention for a playoff spot.
All three losses have come as a result of a batting collapse, though the bowling has not exactly been the best either. After losing the first game to the hosts by a gigantic 104 runs as the team got all out for a paltry 207, the batsmen again failed to chase Bangladesh’s total before just managing to put up 227 runs on the board against India, something that the Men in Blue chased down with relative ease.
“The message is that the batters have got to step up and we haven’t. I feel like we are batting well but we just haven’t done it long enough. Everyone has got in. We have had opportunities to have hundred partnerships and win matches but we haven’t done it. We try and play quite an aggressive form of cricket. Scores are much higher than they used to be. Teams are scoring big totals so when you are in and you are dominating, you’ve got to try and make the most of it,” Benkenstein was quoted as saying by ICC website.
While the batsmen have got off to good starts more often than not, they have failed to plan the innings properly and have thus ended up in deep trouble when it came to the business part of the match.
“Sometimes we don’t get that balance right. We try and accelerate maybe a bit too fast rather than getting our heads down and ticking it over and the batters getting us more to the end of the game,” Benkenstein added.
With the chances of making it to the next stage very slim, South Africa will need to win all of their matches and that too in impressive fashion to keep their net run rate up and hope of making it to the semi finals. Their batting coach certainly has not given up, and he believes neither has the team.
“We are practicing as hard as we can and trying to give the batters as much confidence as we can. We’re making them remember when they played well and that you can’t just become bad players in a week. I really feel we are one game away from getting all those things right. If we get that right, the confidence levels will be up there and then we may peak at the right time,” he concluded.