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South Africa will face the Black Caps in the series decider in Harare on Saturday.
Proteas opening batter Reeza Hendricks. Picture: Christiaan Kotze/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Having fallen short once more against New Zealand, top-order batter Reeza Hendricks admits the Proteas will need to put up a more competitive total this weekend if they are to win the T20 International tri-series in Harare.
Though they won both their games against hosts Zimbabwe in the league phase of the series, qualifying for the final to be held on Saturday, the SA team lost both their fixtures against the Black Caps.
In their latest performance on Tuesday, the Proteas struggled to build partnerships and were restricted to 134/8 after losing wickets regularly throughout their innings.
And the Black Caps had no problem chasing down their target with 25 balls to spare to remain unbeaten after three matches in the series.
“We need a better batting performance. We’ll obviously reflect and see how everybody went about their game, and we have a couple days of practice, so hopefully on Saturday we come out a lot stronger,” said opening batter Hendricks, who top-scored for South Africa with a 41-run contribution on Tuesday.
“We’ve played against them now already, so we know what they’re bringing, and they know what we’re about as well, so we need to reflect on our own games and hopefully we can put in a better performance on Saturday.”
Losing the toss is no excuse
In all five tri-series games played thus far, the teams that have won the toss have opted to field first, and the sides bowling first have emerged victorious on four occasions.
If they lost the toss this weekend, however, Hendricks said it was no excuse and they needed to put up a fight for the trophy.
New Zealand had lost the toss in their clash with the Proteas last week, and they had gone on to win the game, proving teams batting first in the conditions in Harare could still come out on top.
“I don’t think it (the toss) decides the game. It’s definitely a big part of the game, but whatever we do first, we should definitely do it a lot better,” Hendricks said.
New Zealand will face Zimbabwe in a dead rubber match on Thursday, ahead of the T20 International tri-series final between SA and New Zealand this weekend.
