Ken Borland

Kyle Verreynne, South Africa’s leading run-scorer in the series so far, did not hide away from the fact that the Proteas suffered soft dismissals on the opening day of the second Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but he said the tourists’ batsmen were still in a positive frame of mind.

South Africa were bundled out for just 189 on Monday, with Verreynne (52) and Marco Jansen (59) scoring the bulk of those runs in a sixth-wicket stand of 112. Although both of them were caught behind the wicket in successive overs from Cameron Green, edging deliveries outside off-stump, their dismissals were far from soft in comparison to some of their colleagues.

After being sent in to bat, South Africa’s initial collapse from 56 for one to 67 for five had been triggered by Theunis de Bruyn’s wild pull shot and captain Dean Elgar’s crazy run out. Sarel Erwee and Khaya Zondo were both caught off drives that were over-ambitious and poorly executed, while Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada, who have scored valuable runs for the Proteas in the past, were both out to poor strokes.

“In our last few innings, we’ve been getting out to a lot of good balls and the bowlers have really stuck to their plans, but today there were more soft dismissals, which was the disappointing thing,” Verreynne said after passing fifty for the third time in his 13 Tests.

“But behind closed doors, our batsmen are in a good space and we’ve been having really positive conversations. We know we have to make sure the top six puts the runs on the board and we can’t rely on our lower-order to do it.

“We put pressure on Australia with the ball in the last innings in Brisbane, so we have a lot of confidence that our bowlers can do the job. But it’s a pity that we rely so much on them.

“It would be nice for the batsmen to put a good target on the board for them for a change. But you have to give credit to the Australian bowlers, we had a big partnership and put pressure on them, but they stuck at it,” Verreynne said.

With far less conventional movement on offer than in Brisbane, cross-seam deliveries were one of the vehicles the home attack used to great effect on Monday. None more so than Green, who claimed a career-best five for 27 in 10.4 overs.

“A couple of overs before myself and Marco were dismissed, they started to go cross-seam in order to rough up one side of the ball and it felt like it was just tailing in a bit,” Verreynne said. “Not too much was happening for them, so credit to them for trying something.

“Green is a bit different to the other bowlers because he is so tall, so he gets bounce and he has the ability to shape the ball, as does Mitchell Starc.

“But Green has that bit extra and they use him in short bursts so he brings a lot of energy. It’s a luxury Australia have, so the batsmen have to make sure they’re switched on against him,” Verreynne said.

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma criticised the number of soft dismissals his batting line-up suffered and their lack of intent in their humiliating nine-wicket defeat, with nearly half their overs remaining, in the third ODI against Bangladesh, who won their first series in any format in South Africa.

Having won the toss, elected to bat first and reached 46 without loss inside seven overs at Centurion, the Proteas folded meekly to be bowled out for just 154 in 37 overs.

“There were a lot of soft dismissals and too many in the top-order,” Bavuma said. “Intent is the big word, we need to play with intensity and clarity, we need to back our plans 100%.

“But that wasn’t there in the third ODI and we did not execute at 100% either. From a confidence point of view, there was a lot of belief coming out of the India series win.

“But we did not respect our processes at Centurion, maybe we just expected things to go our way. We know Bangladesh have the tag of not being one of the bigger teams, but they showed skill and execution at a high level.

“They really put us under pressure with the ball and bat in how they executed their game-plan and the basics in these conditions. The way they played and the skill they displayed was at a high level,” Bavuma said.

Having whitewashed India 3-0 in January with the same team but bolstered by the inclusion of ace fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, now being beaten by Bangladesh (even though they have improved impressively) on the Highveld rates as one of the most embarrassing defeats the Proteas have ever suffered.

A nonplussed Bavuma regarded his team’s inconsistency as being his biggest concern.

“Not so long ago we were victorious against India and now we were completely outplayed in all three departments by Bangladesh.

“The inconsistency in the way we perform as a unit is the worry,” Bavuma admitted.