Ken Borland

As praiseworthy as Ireland’s brilliant display in the second ODI was, Proteas captain Temba Bavuma made it clear that he was not fine with the dismal performance his team produced in the field.

After South Africa won the toss and were able to bowl first, they were poor in the opening powerplay and dreadful at the death, conceding 95 runs in the last eight overs. Their fielding was also terrible, four catches that should have been taken were dropped and there were several fumbles and misfields.

“We were totally outplayed but the fielding was not the standards that we pride ourselves on and those dropped catches were always going to be costly. Bowling short and wide is never the plan, I’d like to give the bowlers the benefit of the doubt and say it was down to execution. But it’s happening all too often that we find ourselves trying to defend both sides of the field.

“In the death bowling there just hasn’t been any consistency, which makes it hard to set a plan. We’ve had enough conversations about it, we’ve exhausted those conversations now and we need to show it in action now. We trust these guys, but they must be able to bowl to a plan. We know there are guys on the sidelines who have the skills, so there is now a strong case for them getting an opportunity,” Bavuma threatened after the shock 43-run defeat in Dublin.

The batting, especially the middle-order, could also see changes beyond the expected return of Quinton de Kock.

On the bright side, Janneman Malan’s 84 off 96 balls showed that he is a young batsman who watches and learns from all that is going on around him. The 25-year-old has made a great start to his ODI career with 306 runs in five innings, including a century and now his second half-century.

“It was quite nervewracking because I haven’t had a lot of games or been able to get momentum, and it’s in different conditions. But watching Ireland bat twice before I had my first time at the crease gave me a bit of info and I was able to take all the learnings. Chasing 290, at halfway we were on a good path, Rassie van der Dussen and I had set it up well.

“But it would have been great if I could have batted through. I needed to get a big hundred, so I failed the team in that respect. We needed an in-batter at the end and to lose myself and Rassie bang-bang was not great. We needed to take it deeper and put pressure on them. They showed by scoring close to 60 runs in the last four overs what having a guy in could do at the end,” Malan said on Wednesday.

The ants of Ireland pulled off a giant-killing act as they beat a sloppy South African side who suffered far too many eek-worthy moments in the field, by 43 runs in the second ODI at Malahide in Dublin on Tuesday.

The Proteas had again won the toss and sent Ireland in to bat but the pacemen bowled poorly up front and at the death as Ireland posted a formidable 290 for five.

This time Ireland were both able to prosper up front in the powerplay and keep wickets intact. Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie took them to 49 without loss in the first 10 overs and their opening stand was eventually worth  64 off 82 balls.

But in a powerful top-order performance, Balbirnie then added another 60 for the second wicket with Andy McBrine (30) and the Ireland captain went on to a superb 102 off 117 balls, really leading from the front and providing the foundation for the win.

Harry Tector (79 off 68) and George Dockrell (45 off 23) then provided a scintillating end to the innings as they hammered wayward death bowling for 88 runs in the last seven overs.

Spinners Tabraiz Shamsi (10-1-42-1) and Keshav Maharaj (10-0-50-1) were the best of the South African bowlers, doing a fine job in the middle overs.

Apart from the woes of the seamers, the Proteas fielding was also extremely creaky, with four catches going down that should have been caught and messy ground-fielding also being the order of the day.

Janneman Malan was the top-scorer for South Africa as they were bowled out for 247 in the penultimate over.

The rookie opener struck a powerful 84 off 96 balls, with four sixes, making up for the early loss of Aiden Markram (5) and Temba Bavuma (10).

He was well-supported by Rassie van der Dussen (49 off 70) in a third-wicket stand of 108 in 22 overs, but South Africa then fell away badly, once again exposing the lower middle-order and the finishing ability of the team as a problem.

Malan will wryly consider that he could yet found himself out the team for the third and final match on Friday as Quinton de Kock obviously needs to return.

He will also be kicking himself for getting out when he did though, caught sweeping spinner George Dockrell to cow-corner, and when Van der Dussen was trapped lbw by McBrine in the next over, it was the hammer blow from which the Proteas could never recover.

The first ODI between South Africa and Ireland may have been washed out, but it did provide the Proteas with a valuable demonstration of how accepting that conditions are going to be tough for batting up front and not pushing too hard in the first powerplay is going to be crucial when the second match is played at the same Malahide ground in Dublin on Tuesday.

Ireland had reached 195-4, after being sent in to bat, in the 40.2 overs that were played before the rain ended matters, and were well-placed to post a decent total. That was partly due to, and not despite, a fairly painstaking start in which they scored just 28 runs in the first 10 overs but did not lose any wickets.

It is the exact opposite situation to what the Proteas experienced in the West Indies, where batting up front in the powerplay was the time to cash in and the best chance to score quickly.

“The pitch was a tad slow, but it was a good wicket. We’ll have to assess again for the next game, but up front was the toughest time to bat. So you have to be very watchful the first 10 overs and then the ball doesn’t do as much. The game gets easier and then you can press on.

“It’s definitely the right thing to field first because then you know what score you’re chasing and you know the conditions better. We need to show what we’ve learned from the West Indies and be clinical with the bat. We bowled pretty well, but we just need to remind ourselves that we need to execute day in, day out. It’s about being consistent, that’s the key word, we need to repeat the good performances,” all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo said on Monday.

Given that South Africa never got to bat, any changes to the batting line-up are going to be unfair on the likes of Janneman Malan and Kyle Verreynne. But if Quinton de Kock is ready to go after his rest, then who wouldn’t want him in a game that has crucial World Cup qualification points at stake?

Consistent fast bowler Anrich Nortje was also rested for the first game and he could return at the expense of left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who did not get any wickets but was tight, conceding just 38 runs in his nine overs.

Only a wee bit more than 40 overs were able to be played in the first ODI against Ireland in Dublin on Sunday, but in that time there were suggestions that South Africa still have a little problem in terms of death bowling.

The Proteas had won the toss and sent Ireland in to bat under gloomy, overcast skies that had already caused the start to be delayed by 45 minutes.

When Ireland had reached 195 for four after 40.2 overs, the rain returned and became a persistent drizzle, forcing the umpires to call the match off an hour-and-a-half later.

That had been the second time rain had forced the players off the field because Ireland’s innings was first interrupted on 145 for two after 35 overs. When they returned, the match had been reduced to 43 overs a side and the home side went on the thrash.

The last 5.2 overs that the Proteas bowled were hammered for 50 runs, a bit on the expensive side and cause for some thought by the coaching staff.

But overall it had been a solid bowling performance by the Proteas. Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi were both impressively accurate up front and Ireland only scored 28 runs in the first 10 overs.

But the South Africans were unable to buy a wicket until the end of the 13th over when Paul Stirling (13) sliced an attempted pull off Andile Phehlukwayo into the covers.

William Porterfield (63 off 87) and captain Andy Balbirnie (65 off 79) then laid a solid platform for the innings with their second-wicket stand of 87 in 17.2 overs.

Porterfield fell trying to reverse-sweep Tabraiz Shamsi and Rabada (8.2-2-43-2) then picked up two wickets when the slog was on towards the end of the innings.

Harry Tector (25) and Mark Adair (16*) gathered quick runs with good cameos at the death.