Proteas captain Temba Bavuma sat out on Monday’s T20 World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand in Australia.
With South Africa playing their first match of the tournament next Monday, it was hoped that Bavuma would have recovered from the illness that ruled him out of the last two ODI matches in India on their recent tour before they went Down Under.
Out-of-form Proteas captain Temba Bavuma was not selected for Monday's T20 World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand in Brisbane. https://t.co/TEQHO41YQf
— SA Cricket magazine (@SACricketmag) October 17, 2022
But the skipper, who has scored just 64 runs in seven T20Is this year at an average of 10.66, missed Monday’s nine-wicket win over New Zealand and is eyeing a return against Bangladesh in Wednesday’s final warm-up match.
In his absence, Keshav Maharaj led the team.
Bowling out New Zealand in a hurry for just 99, with Maharaj taking 3/17, Tabraiz Shamsi 2/6 and Wayne Parnell 2/8, opening batters Reeza Hendricks (27 off 24 balls) and Rilee Rossouw (54* from 32 balls) put on 66 for the first wicket.
When Hendricks lost his wicket, Aiden Markram (16* off 12) joined Rossouw to finish off the Kiwis inside 12 overs.
Of the win, Maharaj says: “It’s been a long last three days [in Australia since arriving from India, but the] guys are finding their groove and settling in.
“We are acclimatising to the time zone… but the guys will be fully Aussie soon.”
South Africa will open their tournament against the winner of Group B in the Super 12 qualifiers. The group comprises Scotland, the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland, with the top two making it to the finals.
The Scots on Monday stunned the Windies by 42 runs in their opener, while Zimbabwe beat Ireland.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za