http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Allan-Robert-Border-c43726 de Villiers stresses need for substantial partnerships – Cricket News Update
South African skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 has rued the lack of stable partnerships which led his side to crash to their second consecutive ODI defeat to England, by 6 wickets in the 4th game of the ongoing 5-match series, on September 2 at Lord’s in
London.
“We had the opportunity in our batting to kick on with some of our partnerships and that's where we went wrong,” de Villiers observed, post-defeat. “That's two in a row and there's a bit of pressure on our top order now ... We got into nice partnerships
but didn't convert like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 did.”
“We are under pressure,” he added. “... I'd like to think the whole of the top six can play as a unit but we haven't been performing well ... we need more partnerships, that's where you get momentum and we haven't had enough of that. We've had one partnership
in every game.”
Admitting that he himself had been among the senior batsmen who failed to deliver, de Villiers pointed out that there was no excuse for their performance, going on to add that the team’s batsmen would be having a meeting where they would discuss plans on
how to improve.
Following the first one-day, which was washed out due to rain, the ODI series kicked off with a comprehensive 80-run win for the visiting team in the second match, played on August 28 at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HM-Amla-c1557 scored a massive 150, and
with other batsmen chipping in with vital contributions, the Proteas managed to establish a number of useful partnerships, including a 89-run opening stand between Amla and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GC-Smith-c1473 (52).
However, following the first victory, the Proteas batsmen have struggled to convert starts into substantial innings, and none of the batsmen have managed to score a half-ton. The third match (which de Villiers’ men lost by 4 wickets) witnessed only one meaningful
partnership on the South African side – the 50-run opening stand between Amla (43) and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Smith-c90598 (18) – and the fourth match contained similar disappointing performances.
The highest score, at Lord’s on September 2, was once again http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hamisi-Abdallah-c61368’s (45), while none of the batsmen were able to exceed the 68-run opening partnership. The visitors followed up a mediocre batting performance with a tepid bowling attack, eventually conceding
a 6-wicket defeat.
With the series currently standing at 2-1, in the Poms’ favour, the Proteas have a last chance to level the series during the final one-day, scheduled to be played at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on September 5.
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