South Africa Performance Review

 

 

A shocking performance by South Africa!.

 When Imran Tahir picked Johnny Bairstow in the very first over of the World Cup, one wondered “wow” what a start by South Africa!.

This became the best tactical move in this World Cup. Teams started using same formula- viz spinners opening the bowling against England opening batsmen. Teams like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India  and New Zealand opened their bowling with spin against England with some success.

However South Africa were not able to capitalise with that start – as England fought back and posted a defendable total (311) to win the match very easily.

Since that match South Africa’s performed ordinarily, not the usual aggressive approach. They started losing to teams they generally would win against, teams like New Zealand, Bangladesh, Pakistan and also to India.

It was only in their tournament’s last game against Australia, they were able to produce glimpse of their “A-game” !!.

Like Pakistan It was their bowling that led them down. They too were not able to pick 10 wkts regularly ( 7.62 per match)In 8 complete games only thrice they picked 10 wickets, and interestingly four times teams were able to post > 300 score against them. That reflects their bowling performance. This is a rare feat, because in 10 previous matches played this year, only once teams was able to score > 300 against South Africa!.

A year prior to WC – there was news in how South Africa was preparing themselves for this WC. After every series their coach was expressing how they have improved in certain department, and are getting their right squad!.

However their game plan did not materialize from their squad they picked. They were depended on experienced players like De Kock, Amla Steyn and Du Plessis to perform consistently. Disappointingly Steyn got injured and never played a single game in the WC. Amla too had minor injury and was out of form. This left De Kock and Du Plessis to build decent score. The bowling attack didn’t have a leader, although they can be the most hostile bunch of bowlers.

 

Statistical Analysis

ODIs – 9

Won -3 (SL, AFG, AUS)

Lost 5 (ENG, NZ, IND,BAN, PAK)

ABD- 1 (WI)

 

KPI comparison of (WC-2019) v/s Recent(pre WC -2019)

 

The most glaring stats below is last row- % 6 RPO.

A shocking performance for South African bowlers as they 41% of their overs went for 6 or more runs. In comparison with pre-WC when it was only 8.58!!.

World Cup 2019			Pre World Cup (in 2019 )
Batting	Bowling	Indicators	Batting	Bowling
37.19	33.89	Avg	48.98	27.62
5.34	5.42	R/o	5.49	5.00
41.81	37.51	St. Rate	53.53	33.12
49.72	47.29	Scoring Rate	50.10	45.53
8.37	10.14	Boundary rate	10.54	8.58
47.19	46.67	L 4	43.09	36.71
39.47	40.90	6 +	13.70	8.58

 

 

10-over phases

Batting

Here is a 10-over breakdown on their batting and bowling progress. Featuring 6 indicators, including exclusively 6 plus R/o for batting and L 4(4 or less R/o) for bowling.

In this World Cup South African was ordinary most times.

Batting	Wkts	Avg	R/O	St.Rate	Scoring Rate	Boundary rate	% 6 + R/o	% < =4 R/o
(0-10)	10	39.70	4.54	52.50	33.90	10.67	36.57	57.14
(11-20)	7	57.57	5.05	68.43	50.10	6.89	35.07	45.09
(21-30)	9	45.33	5.18	52.56	55.39	6.13	31.71	49.47
(31-40)	11	32.45	5.33	36.55	51.99	6.97	37.31	49.25
(41-50)	15	24.60	7.51	19.67	65.08	12.20	67.12	26.44

 

Shockingly out of 31 centuries scored in this WC, South Africa had only one centurion!. Their captain scored that in their last game against Australia, and he also happened to be their highest run-scorer(387) in this WC.  Interestingly apart from Afghanistan(none) every other team had at least centurions!.

De Kock modest form as an opener can now becoming a worrying factor for South Africa. In 9 inns only twice he batted beyond the 20^th over and his highest score being 68, one of 3 scores of 50 plus.

 

Batsmen in phases

(0-10)	Balls	Runs	4s	6s	Scoring shots	Wkts
De Kock	212	157	21	0	81	4
Amla	118	81	12	0	35	3
Markram	80	76	13	1	30	2
Du Plessis	106	63	9	0	28	1
van der Dussen	9	6	0	0	4	0
1st Phase total	525	383	55	1	178	10

 

 

(11-20)	Balls	Runs	4s	6s	Scoring shots	Wkts
Du Plessis	151	137	13	0	84	2
De Kock	121	127	11	3	66	2
Amla	83	57	3	0	40	0
van der Dussen	65	34	2	0	24	1
Markram	55	27	1	0	24	2
2nd Phase total	479	384	30	3	240	7

 

(21-30)	Balls	Runs	4s	6s	Scoring shots	Wkts
Du Plessis	108	105	6	2	66	2
van der Dussen	99	88	6	1	56	0
Phehlukwayo	55	46	5	1	24	0
Miller	51	44	1	0	38	0
Amla	77	42	1	0	38	1
Markram	42	31	2	0	22	1
De Kock	17	21	2	1	9	2
Duminy	22	11	1	0	8	2
3rd Phase total	473	389	24	5	262	9

 

(31-40)	Balls	Runs	4s	6s	Scoring shots	Wkts
van der Dussen	120	98	1	4	69	3
Du Plessis	56	74	8	2	37	0
Miller	81	65	5	0	45	2
Phehlukwayo	52	29	3	1	14	2
Amla	35	23	0	0	19	1
Rabada	20	12	2	0	6	1
C Morris	10	11	0	0	8	0
Duminy	13	8	0	0	7	0
4th Phase total	402	332	20	8	209	11

 

(41-50)	Balls	Runs	4s	6s	Scoring shots	Wkts
van der Dussen	52	85	5	5	40	1
C Morris	51	63	4	3	33	3
Phehlukwayo	49	59	8	0	31	2
Duminy	37	51	5	0	32	2
Rabada	49	45	2	1	27	1
Miller	21	25	2	1	13	2
Tahir	15	11	0	0	7	1
5th Phase total	295	350	26	10	192	15

 

Bowling

South Africa’s bowling lacked penetration and accuracy. The % of 6 + runs /over(2^nd last column below) kept on increasing and never went down. This was not the case in their recent performance earlier this year, when they bowled brilliantly!  (See KPI table above).

 

Bowling	Wkts	Avg	R/O	St.Rate	Scoring Rate	Boundary rate	% 6 + R/o	% < =4 R/o
(0-10)	9	46.00	5.08	54.33	35.58	12.27	38.04	46.63
(11-20)	11	30.91	4.24	43.73	40.54	7.69	29.94	64.86
(21-30)	10	36.90	4.61	48.00	45.63	7.29	33.75	52.50
(31-40)	11	40.27	5.97	40.45	51.91	11.01	51.24	37.75
(41-50)	20	25.05	7.65	19.65	66.92	12.98	54.96	27.48

Dale Steyn was ruled out after their game against England. This was the major reason for their lack of penetration, accuracy and most importantly leadership. Styen is a fantastic bowling leader. Bowlers like Rabada, Morris and Phillander before that learned lot from him. However this squad was filled with experienced batsmen, and raw young fast bowlers who played less ODI cricket.

Bowlers like Pretorius, Phehlukwayo, Ngidi and B Hendricks have very little knowledge in how to bowl in these English condition. These grounds provided enough help for bowlers at initial stages of innings, and if weather is cloudy then movement in air and off surface can be obtained. If you look at team’s phases table above…bowlers conceded more runs and boundaries then their batsmen.

  Bowlers in phases

(0-10)	Balls	runs	wkts	r/o	% mdn	C 4	L 4
Rabada	216	171	4	4.75	2.78	22.22	47.22
Pretorius	35	26	2	4.46	17.14	0.00	51.43
Tahir	42	33	2	4.71	0.00	0.00	71.43
Phehlukwayo	12	5	1	2.50	50.00	0.00	50.00
B Hendricks	30	25	0	5.00	20.00	40.00	40.00
C Morris	54	37	0	4.11	11.11	44.44	55.56
Ngidi	90	108	0	7.20	0.00	20.00	33.33
1st Phase total	479	405	9	5.07	6.26	21.29	47.60

 

(11-20)	Balls	Runs	wkts	r/o	% mdn	C 4	L 4
C Morris	126	90	4	4.29	4.76	42.86	61.90
Phehlukwayo	145	105	3	4.34		41.38
Pretorius	59	46	1	4.68		30.51
Rabada	30	19	1	3.80		40.00	100.00
Tahir	85	51	1	3.60		35.29	100.00
Markram	12	14	0	7.00		0.00
Ngidi	12	6	0	3.00		50.00
Shamsi	12	5	0	2.50		100.00
2nd Phase total	481	336	10	4.19	1.25	39.92	64.86

 

(21-30)	Balls	Runs	wkts	r/o	% mdn	C 4	L 4
Tahir	144	96	4	4.00	0	37.50
Phehlukwayo	60	42	2	4.20	10	40.00
C Morris	54	39	1	4.33	22.22	22.22
Markram	36	23	1	3.83	0	33.33
Pretorius	18	1	1	0.33	66.66	66.67
Rabada	48	43	1	5.38	0	0.00
Duminy	36	37	0	6.17	0	0.00
Ngidi	36	37	0	6.17	16.66	33.33
Shamsi	48	45	0	5.63	0	25.00
3rd Phase total	480	363	10	4.54	7.5	28.75

 

(31-40)	Balls	runs	wkts	r/o	% mdn	C 4	L 4
C Morris	79	84	4	6.38	7.594937	15.19	75.00
Tahir	120	117	4	5.85	0	10.00	50.00
Duminy	24	22	1	5.50	25	0.00	0.00
Pretorius	24	21	1	5.25	25	0.00	100.00
Rabada	78	58	1	4.46	15.38	15.38	0.00
Markram	24	39		9.75
Ngidi	12	9		4.50
Phehlukwayo	60	57		5.70		20.00
Shamsi	24	31		7.75		25.00
4th Phase total	445	438	11	5.91	6.74	12.13	54.55

 

(41-50)	Balls	runs	wkts	r/o	% mdn	C 4	L 4
Ngidi	48	51	7	6.38		0.00	28.57
Phehlukwayo	96	127	5	7.94		6.25	60.00
C Morris	69	93	4	8.09		17.39	50.00
Rabada	90	106	4	7.07		6.67	25.00
Shamsi	24	35	0	8.75		0.00
Tahir	66	77	0	7.00		27.27
5th phase total	393	489	20	7.47		10.69	40.00

 

 

Partnerships Avg(Bat v Bowl) with No.century stands(in bracket)

Batting Partnerships –

It is an interestingly partnership table they have here. A good consistent partnership on top, yet only twice they reached 300 plus score and only thrice 250 plus. Suggesting they would get a decent but slow start with their captain batting deep into the innings. However never able to launch in the end for a big score.

1^st bat scores (complete match)–

227 –lost

241- lost

325 – won

2^nd bat score(Chasing Targets)

312 (207 all out) –lost

331 (309 all out) – lost

127 (achieved) – won

309(259 all out) –lost

204 (achieved)  – won

 

Batting Partnerships against South Africa  –

Like Pakistan bowling teams were able to post decent partnerships at the top. Although South Africa possessed a decent bowling attack, but they lacked leadership. Perhaps they should have given the mettle to K Rabada after Styen was ruled out of World Cup due to injury.

Teams were able to post big opening stand consistently which provided them large totals!. These partnerships were in middle and lower order.

Batting	WC – Partnerships	v/s South Africa
37.11 (1)	1st wkt	34.75
51.67  (1)	2nd wkt	36.13 (1)
57.14 (1)	3rd wkt	47.63 (1)
26.33	4th wkt	40.88 (1)
30.67	5th wkt	39.50 (1)
19.00	6th wkt	36.00
22.40	7th wkt	12.86
27.00	8th wkt	17.80
11.50	9th wkt	9.00
4.33	10th wkt	4.50

All data updated at end of World Cup 2019