Shamsi and Bavuma set up comfortable win for Proteas

The weather held off long enough, the Dutch, already undermanned, lacked firepower and the Proteas earned a crucial 10 points that will help their chances for automatic World Cup qualification with a comfortable eight-wicket victory in Benoni on Friday. 

With flashes of lightning in the distance and rain falling nearby, the Proteas made sure they stayed ahead of not only the required run rate in pursuit of 190 — a paltry 3.8 at the start of the innings — but also the Duckworth Lewis/Stern target. 

Temba Bavuma’s rich vein of form continued as he made an unbeaten 90 off 79 balls hitting eight fours and a six. With him at the end was Aiden Markram, not out on 51, an innings in which he played confidently, stroking seven fours and a six. 

South Africa gave their Super League net run rate a boost too which may prove significant if Ireland do win all three of their matches against Bangladesh in May and thus tie with the Proteas on the log. 

SA produced an efficient display with the ball, which proved more than enough against a Dutch batting line-up, which had struggled in Zimbabwe last week and for these two matches against the Proteas are missing their best batter Colin Ackermann, who a few summers ago, was being talked of as a Proteas candidate, Bas de Leede and Roelof van der Merwe. 

Ackermann has gone back to England to prepare for the new county season with Leicestershire, and his national team certainly missed his expertise and experience of SA conditions. 

They started well after Bavuma chose to bowl, with the openers Max O’ Dowd and Vikramjit Singh adding 58 for the first wicket in 11 overs.  Besides good bounce, there was little assistance for the new ball bowlers in terms of movement through the air, though Marco Jansen got the odd one to wobble off the seam. 

Singh took on Kagiso Rabada, whacking him for a pair of sixes in the seventh over, one of which cleared the old stand, the roof of which could use a lick of paint. Much of Willowmoore Park still contains remnants of what was almost the Global T20 League, with the yellow canvas tops and the roof on the stand showing the colours of what would have been the Benoni Zalmi team. 

The Orange-clad Dutch, having given themselves a solid foundation, then unfortunately saw their innings unravel once Sisanda Magala had O’Dowd caught behind for 18. They lost three wickets in the next 10 overs, including Singh who scored 45, and their run rate fell from close to six an over to below four. 

It was the ideal situation for Tabraiz Shamsi to bowl in after his recent struggles with confidence, that coach Rob Walter acknowledged would require some work from a technical perspective. Walter said last week the left-arm wrist spinner had developed “bad habits” playing so many T20 matches. On Friday however, the Dutch batters couldn’t really attack him, which allowed Shamsi to find a rhythm and through that there was better control of both line and length. 

He got a big assist with his first wicket from Quinton de Kock who took a fine catch off a thin edge by Musa Ahmed in Shamsi’s first over. 

Only Tija Nidamanuru of the middle order batters was able to keep the South Africans at bay. He made a solid 48 but it took 71 balls as he sought to hold the innings together, but the lack of any assistance proved fatal. 

He was the eighth wicket to fall, giving Magala his third after which Jansen and Shamsi wrapped up the innings with the Dutch leaving 23 balls on the table. 

Shamsi’s 3/25 will hopefully prove a turning point for him and his confidence in what is a critical position for the Proteas given the long-term absence of Keshav Maharaj and where the World Cup will be played. Magala too, claimed three wickets, while Jansen was arguably the best of the Proteas bowlers, even if his figures of 1/27 don’t suggest that to be the case. 

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.