South Africa spin bowler Tabraiz Shamsi says the Proteas aren’t a one-man band, despite his performances reflecting directly in the team’s results in their 2-1 T20I series win over England.
The world’s third-best bowler in the 20-over format struggled big time in the series opener, conceding 49 runs in just three overs. With their kingpin klapped, England had SA on the ropes by scoring 234/6 in their 20 overs.
SA could only get 198/8 in their reply and lost the match by 41 runs.
Shamsi and the team had to do better with the ball in hand and they knew it.
Of the emotions after that match and how they dealt with it, Shamsi says: “The first game didn’t go according to plan, but that’s how T20 cricket is. “Credit to management, nobody had a word with me and that’s the best way to deal with it.
“These things happen… thankfully we got back on track.”
#Proteas duo @DavidMillerSA12 and @shamsi90 wrap up the T20I series 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) August 1, 2022
Full video 🔗 https://t.co/v69Rdv7Tf3#ENGvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/uN57MWCJYp
Back on track meant Shamsi taking 3/27 and Andile Phehlukwayo (3/39), but they were set up well by Lungi Ngidi’s 2/11 as SA bowled out England for 149 in reply to their 207/3, with Rilee Rossouw getting an unbeaten 96 off 55 balls.
Then, in the final match on Sunday, Shamsi again starred to win the Man of the Match award by taking 5/24 to help bowl out England for just 101 runs in reply to South Africa’s 191/5 (with Man of the Series Reeza Hendricks scoring 70 off 50 balls) to win the series 2-1.
Fellow spinner Keshav Maharaj also did well, taking 2/21, but it was Shamsi who underlined his importance to the team by finishing the series with the most wickets (eight), followed by Ngidi with seven.
Shamsi says of the confidence they will take out of the series win heading into the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year: “We have different match-winners in the squad and you could see that there are different guys that win these Man of the Match awards and put in game-changing performances.
“We don’t rely on one or two guys...”
SA’s game breakers next face Ireland in two T20Is, with the first of those matches being played in Gloucester Wednesday night.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za