SA and WI have started their campaign on a disappointing note against Australia and England in their respective groups at the T20 WC. What both teams lacked in common was to adapt to the conditions especially West Indies who did not have any solution to the questions posed by the English,
West Indies.
England played according to the matchups against the West Indies batsmen.
1. Moeen Ali is bowling in the PP to 3 left-handers Lewis, Gayle, and Hetmyer. We have seen in the IPL how Dhoni uses Moeen Ali effectively against the left-handers. Morgan used the same trick and it has paid off quite well.
2. Early spin to Russell.
Russell off late has been seen struggling to wrist spin. Morgan immediately brought in Adil Rashid and looked to unsettle him from ball 1 itself. Adil Rashid did justice to his captain by picking up Russell in his first ball itself.
3. Lack of application and adaptation to the conditions.
West Indies is that kind of a side who on a particular day on a good pitch can thrash the world's best bowlers and also vice versa of what happened against England. All their batsmen play attacking brands of cricket which is very much required in T20 but not on pitches provided in UAE. These are surfaces where batter needs to apply themselves and play effectively.
This is probably where WI lack. Let's compare WI and England, players. Buttler is that type of player who would adapt to the condition and play accordingly at top of the order. The same is not the case with Lewis. He has only a single gear to operate else would get out. This type of innings would not help WI get off to good start and build pressure in the middle overs.
So WI needs to just score at around 160 and not look at 200 as these kinds of pitches don't require that big score. With the likes of Bravo in the side, WI can easily chase down 160 and finish off the game.
South Africa.
Like WI, SA too did not have a good start to the innings with Bavuma getting trapped to Maxwell. Apart from today, Bavuma doesn't look like a threat at the start across the 3 series SA have played this year.
Decock can open along with Markram who will fit into the opening role very well. Bavuma can come down at 3 and play the anchor role with Dussen at 4. This will stabilize the innings and make SA full use of PP and then Bavuma play anchor.
Their bowling looked good with not many faults. But the use of slower balls is where I want Nortje to be calculative and bowl them according to the situation.
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