Highveld Lions keeper Mangaliso Mosehle says the drop in fielding standards is 'sad'. Photo: Gallo Images.
With the Ram Slam T20 challenge having reached its halfway stage, one of the biggest talking points to date has been fielding.
The standards overall have been worryingly low as dropped catches and iffy ground fielding sour the presence of the Proteas.
The Highveld Lions haven’t been immune to that and arguably lost their weekend meeting against the Warriors at Newlands because of a dropped catch off match-winner Colin Ingram.
Two of their stars, wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle – who took a brilliant one-handed catch in that game – and in-form opener Rassie van der Dussen voiced their opinions on the matter.
MOSEHLE: T20s make teams ‘forget’ about fielding’s importance
It seems that players are getting too caught up in batting aggressively or taking wickets regularly during a game that they forget about fielding. The issue definitely isn’t training-related in our team because we work really hard on fielding. It’s just really important that a fielder remains aware of opportunities and takes them.
There’s certainly been a drop in standards, even with the Proteas around. That’s rather sad because as South Africans we really do pride ourselves on our fielding. It’s just been a general thing around the franchise system at the moment that we seem to drop 2-3 catches in a game. We forget about those little things in the field.
VAN DER DUSSEN: It might be a bad patch
To be really honest, I think this period of indifferent fielding might be coincidental. I really don’t think teams are preparing any differently with regards to fielding or not giving it the attention it deserves.
For example, last weekend in Cape Town it was really windy conditions to play in. High balls are always going to be difficult to catch in that situation. We saw in Paarl two nights earlier that the outfield there is not in a very good condition. From the outside, I do think the situation looks worse than it actually is.
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