South African spin needs polish to counter Aussie hitting
GEORGETOWN (Reuters) - South Africa must polish the weaker element of their bowling armoury and make better use of a spinning wicket when they face Australia in the tri-nation series in Guyana on Tuesday.
They must also nullify the threat of Australia's powerful hitters to stand any chance of victory in their second one-day international, spinner Aaron Phangiso told reporters on Sunday.
South Africa lost the opener in the 10-match series to hosts West Indies at the Guyana National Stadium in Providence on Friday after being dismissed for a paltry total of 188 as Sunil Narine returned to international action with a six-wicket haul.
South Africa's spinners took six wickets in reply but were also laid into by Kieron Pollard, whose unbeaten 67 took West Indies to a four-wicket victory.
"We can maybe try a different approach when a player like Pollard is on the attack, perhaps change up the lengths a little bit," Phangiso said.
"It’s something that we will need to work on -- how to counter a situation when a batsman is being positive and on the attack," he added.
Against West Indies, Phangiso posted career-best figures of 3-40, which might have looked a lot more flattering had Pollard not hit him for three enormous sixes.
"The surface was dry, definitely not one that you get back in South Africa often. It was very helpful to the spinners, we saw Narine taking a six-for-27 for the West Indies and our spinners picked up six wickets between us. "I’m quite pleased with my performance but there is still a lot of improvement to be done," he said.
Australia, South Africa, and West Indies meet each other three times over the next three weeks in Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis and Barbados with the top two playing in the final in Bridgetown on June 26.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson in Johannesburg; Editing by Ken Ferris)