Mark Boucher talks about South Africa's 'bravery' in their 2-1 T20I series loss
South Africa's head coach Mark Boucher has commended the courageous approach with which an inexperienced Proteas team played in the recently-concluded T20I series against Pakistan.
"The guys showed a bit of bravery with the way they played, though I wish we had been a bit smarter in the way we played the game at certain stages. What I've seen is encouraging," said Mark Boucher during the virtual press conference following the conclusion of the 3rd T20I.
Although South Africa lost the series 2-1, they were in with a chance of winning all three matches. However, their mistakes during critical junctures of each game cost them the win.
"I think you can pretty much analyze any moment in T20 cricket but, in the first T20, overs 6-10 when we were batting, we only got 15 runs. That was a big issue and we probably did lose the game there. So yes, we probably could have done better there. The key moments really cost us here, and for me, as a coach, we have spoken about that and we'll continue to try and get through to guys so they don't make the same mistakes again," pointed out Boucher.
Mark Boucher impressed with Shamsi, Hendricks, and Miller
Mark Boucher acknowledged several positives for South Africa in the series, including the bowling of Tabraiz Shamsi and the batting of Reeza Hendricks and David Miller. Overall, it was a pretty encouraging show from the less-experienced unit.
"A lot of positives, some youngsters coming through and Shamsi bowled really well throughout the series. Reeza [Hendricks] played nicely, and David [Miller]'s knock towards the end was great; good to see him back in the runs. The bowling I thought we did really well, there were times with the bat when we perhaps didn't do that well but enough encouragement overall," elaborated Boucher.
It should be noted that apart from David Miller, nobody in the South African team has featured in more than 30 T20Is. Heinrich Klaasen, South Africa's interim T20I captain, has only 13 T20I caps to his name.