Skipper Quinton de Kock on Monday (November 30) called for patience as South Africa suffered a series-conceding four-wicket defeat in the second T20I against England at Boland Park, Paarl.
It was South Africa’s third successive series loss and De Kock, who has won only three of the 10 T20Is since taking over the reins from Faf du Plessis, said it was a new beginning for the national side playing its first series since the COVID-19 pandemic brought the game to a standstill in early March.
On the other hand, England’s white-ball cricketers had played a full summer of cricket at home and many of them also featured in the IPL 2020.
"Patience is key at the moment. The team hasn't played together in five to six months. It's all about patience. If we spend more time together and play together, the results will come," De Kock said ahead of Tuesday's final T20I at Newlands, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Late withdrawals of seam-bowling all-rounders Dwayne Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo didn’t help the hosts either. Moreover, lack of practice time owing to COVID-19 protocols left most of the players rusty.
"At the beginning of the lockdown we weren't really allowed to train so that was quite tough," spinner Tabraiz Shamsi said. "Our first game we played together as a team was on Friday, we're still getting to know each other. Obviously, we know each other but the more you play together, the more you're going to know each other's ins and outs.
"It's going to take us a little more time to gel again. There's no need to panic, we're getting used to each other to get in the rhythm again."
South Africa may have lost the series but de Kock doesn’t want to make too many changes in the line-up.
"Obviously it is disappointing to lose but I don't think we are going to change much because we still want to win. We want to give guys opportunities but we need to win," he said.
"It's difficult because we don't have all the options that we would like. It would be nice to have a little extra batsman as an all-rounder to give us more freedom. But at the end of the day we have to carry on and do our best," the Proteas captain further remarked.
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
